LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PATRIOTISM AND RELIGION 



AS 



The Library 
of Congress 

washington 



POTENT FACTORS 



IN 



Our Country's History 1 Destiny. 



A Thanksgiving Tribute, 



BY 



REV. EDWIN J. STANLEY, 




NASHVILLE, TENN.: 

Southern Methodist Publishing Ko'PSB 

1888. 



0" 



-p}*%J> 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, 
BY EDWIN J. STANLEY, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFATORY. 



The writer of these lines, by request, prepared and delivered a 
Thanksgiving sermon at Stevensville, Montana, which was repeated, 
in substance, at Corvallis and Victor. The subjects discussed were 
of such general interest, the sentiments expressed met with such fa- 
vor, and the desire having been expressed to see the matter in print, 
the manuscript was revised and somewhat enlarged, and the follow- 
ing pages show the result. If they afford instruction to any one, or 
contribute any thing to the general good of our common country by 
calling attention to the matters discussed, especially here in this 
great North-west, where we are just laying foundations, and where 
the writer has lived and wrought so long, the labor will not have 
been in vain. E. J. S. 

stevensville, Montana, October 22. 18S7. 

(3) 



THANKSGIVING. 



A Proclamation by the President. 

The goodness and mercy of God which have followed the Amer- 
ican people during the past year claim their recognition and hum- 
ble acknowledgment. By his omnipotent power he has protected us 
from war and pestilence and from every national calamity. By his 
gracious favor the earth has yielded a generous return to the labor 
of the husbandman, and every path of honest toil has led into com- 
fort and contentment. By his loving-kindness the hearts of our peo- 
ple have been replenished with fraternal sentiment and patriotic en- 
deavor, and by his unerring guidance wehave been directed in the way 
of national prosperity. To the end that we may testify our gratitude 
for these blessings, I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United 
States, do hereby designate Thursday, the 24th day of November next, 
as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by all the people 
of the land. On that day let all secular work and employment be sus- 
pended, and let our people assemble in their accustomed places of 
worship, and with prayer and songs of praise give thanks to our 
heavenly Father for all that he has done for us, while we humbly 
implore the forgiveness of our sins and the continuance of his mer- 
cy. Let families and kindred be reunited on that day, and let their 
hearts be filled with kindly cheer and affectionate reminiscence, 
and be turned in thankfulness to the Source of all their pleasure and 
the Giver of all that makes the day glad and joyous. And in the 
midst of our plenty and our happiness let us remember the poor, the 
needy, and unfortunate, and by our gifts of charity and ready benevo- 
lence let us increase the number of those who, with grateful hearts, 
shall join in our thanksgiving. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of "Wash- 
ington this 22d day of October, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand eight hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the 
United States the one hundred and twelfth. 

(Signed) G rover Cleveland. 

By the President. 

Tiios. F. Bayaed, Secretary of State. 



6 Thanksgiving Proclamations. 

TERRITORY OF MONTANA. 

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR. 

In these closing months of the year 18S7, one hundred years aft- 
er the institution of the great Government of the United States of 
America, and more than eighty years after the lands comprised with- 
in the Territory of Montana were purchased and became part of said 
Government, every citizen of that Territory is called upon to pause 
and behold the goodness and lavish givings to our people, from him 
who leads' and counsels them, and who has so fully lighted up their 
ways and turned into their homes — most mercifully— his gifts of 
plenty, both in spiritual and temporal riches. 

Wherefore, as the trusted official head of the Commonwealth of 
Montana, and referring to the proclamation of the President of the 
United States, of date 25th of October, 18S7: 

I, Preston IT. Leslie, Governor of the Territory of Montana, do 
hereby set apart and appoint Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of 
November, 1887, as a clay of thanksgiving and praise to the Su- 
preme Pvuler of the universe for all these years of peace, rich sup- 
plies, and encouragements to the people. And I do exhort all the 
citizens of this Territory that on that day, and every hour of that day, 
they engage themselves with the people of the United States in 
prayer and in meditation upon the goodness of God, and seek to be 
in the spirit of thanksgiving unto him for his great supplies of pros- 
perity. Also, that they assemble themselves together, and in the love 
of righteousness counsel the youth of the land in wisdom's ways, 
and devoutly pray for gracious continued favors. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the 
great seal of the Territory of Montana to be attached. Done at the 
city of Helena, on this fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independ- 
dence of the United States of America the one hundred and twelfth 
year. Preston IT. Leslie. 

By the Governor. 
Attest: 

Wm. B. YVebb, Secrctarv of Montana. 



DISCOURSE. 

11 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink 
the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is pre- 
pared: for this day is holy unto the Lord; neither be ye sorry; for 
the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Xeh. viii. 10.) 

WE have assembled in this house of worship 
to-day in compliance with a proclamation 
issued by the President of our Nation, and also by 
the Governor of our Territory, and in accordance 
with a time-honored custom among the people of 
the United States, to render thanks in this public 
way to Almighty God for the blessings which we, 
as a nation and a community, have received from 
the Giver of all good. 

Dr. Franklin said that once in a time of great 
despondency among the first settlers of Xew En- 
gland, it was proposed in one of their assemblies to 
proclaim a public fast. An old farmer arose and 
spoke of their loud complaints, which were enough 
to provoke high heaven; reviewed their many mer- 
cies, and showed that really they had much to be 
thankful for, and moved that instead of a day of 
fasting they should appoint a day of thanksgiving. 
Whether or not this was the origin of Thanks- 
giving day in this country, yet it is certain that 
such occasions have not been uncommon among 
God-fearing people who were settling now coun- 
tries and forming new communities and re-forming 
old ones in the onward march of civilization and 

,'7) 



8 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

good government, all along the ages from the de- 
parture of the Israelites from Egypt for the prom- 
ised land down to the present time. 

The chapter from which our lesson is taken pre- 
sents a memorable and 

An Honorable Precedent, 
and President Cleveland's .proclamation read in 
yonr hearing to-day is in exact harmony with the 
spirit and design of the text, which is part of a 
proclamation issued by President Neheniiah, the 
"Tirshatha," to his brethren and fellow-citizens, the 
Jews, nearly twenty-five hundred years ago. They 
had just returned from a long captivity in Chaldea 
to their native country. Under the wise direction 
of Nehemiah the walls of Jerusalem, that had been 
broken down, and the gates, that had been burned 
with lire, w r ere rebuilt, and Jewish authority partially 
restored at this, the metropolis of their nation. The 
people, upon hearing the "book of the law," which 
had been long neglected, read and expounded by 
Ezra, the scribe, w r ho " stood upon a pulpit of wood 
which they had made for the purpose," were greatly 
grieved and wept sore on account of the sins that 
they had committed. 

It was perfectly natural that they should weep 
over the follies that had led to their national ruin, 
and doubtless good Nehemiah was pleased with 
this evidence that they "were still 

Loyal in Heart 
to God and to the^r native land. But it was not 
necessary to weep and mourn forever over their 
past wickedness, however great it had been or griev- 
ous its results. They must not continue to look on 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 9 

the dark side of the picture alone. God had- really 
been very good to them. lie had brought them out 
of the land of their captivity, and the walls of their 
great city were built up once more, thus protecting 
their homes, their wives, their little ones, their al- 
tars, and all that was dear to them. With all their 
past affliction and oppression — the result of their 
folly — they surely had much to be thankful for. 

The Cloud Was Rifting. 
The future was portentous, and it was an occa- 
sion for sending presents to the poor and for gen- 
eral thanksgiving and joy. 

' ; Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat 
the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions unto 
them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is 
holy unto the Lord ; neither be ye sorry; for the joy 
of the Lord is your strength .... And all the 
people went their way to eat and to drink and to 
send portions and to make great mirth, because 
they understood the words that had been declared 
unto them." 

That was 

A Real Thanksgiving Day, 
and a thanksgiving dinner. I do not know what 
they ate, nor how they served it, nor whether tur- 
keys were as much in demand then as they have come 
to be later; but surely they had the best the market 
afforded, for they " ate the fat and drank the sweet" 
of the land. And doubtless their amusements and 
their mirth were ail of an innocent and harmless 
nature, and regulated by "the book of the law," 
the book of God, for it was a religious as well as a 
national feast. 



10 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors . 

I would that we could have 

More Religion 
in #11 our fasts and feasts, both public and private, in 
all the walks of life, and in all the affairs of our nation. 
I am forever opposed to bringing politics into relig- 
ion, but surely we need all the religion we can get 
into our politics. And by religion I do not mean 
merely the singing of psalms and offering up of 
prayers, the wearing of a long face, or doing any 
thing simply for a show; but I mean loyalty to God 
and his word, the diffusion of the principle and 
spirit of truth, honesty, love, and purity among 
men, so as to become controlling factors in their 
hearts and lives, both in public and in private. 

Religion — God enthroned in human conscience 
and affection — is to man in his moral relations what 
the sun with its power of attraction is to the solar 
system and the natural world — the center and 
source of light, life, order, beauty, and fruitful ness 
everywhere. We need to come to that point when 
every act that we perform, whether plowing a fur- 
row, sinking a shaft or a prospect hole, driving an 
ox, making a trade, running a bank or a railroad, 
or conducting the affairs of a Territory, a State, or 
a Nation, is a religious act. Whatever we do we 
should be able to do it heartily as unto the Lord, 
and not unto men. 

A Model Ruler. 
Nehemiah was a model ruler, as well as a true 
patriot and friend. In fact, he was one of the grand- 
est of men. The works that he did in clearing away 
the rubbish and building up literal walls around the 
homes and altars of his nation, protecting them 



In Our Country'* History and Destiny. 11 

from the ravages of those who were seeking their 
overthrow, illustrates most happily the work that 
is demanded of us as a nation and as a people to- 
day, lie saw the danger that environed them, and 
moved with promptness, prudence, wisdom, energy, 
and perseverance to avert it. "When Sanballat 
the Iloronite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammon- 
ite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that 
there was come a man to seek the welfare of the 
children of Israel." It meant that their power 
would be curtailed, their u personal liberty " would 
be interfered with, their impious traffic would be 
done away with, and they should be brought under 
restraints that would be painful and grievous to 
them, however wholesome and elevating they might 
be in their tendency to the general public. And 
they strove earnestly, by ridicule, flattery, deceit, 
and open violence, to hinder and overthrow the 
good work. 

But Nehemiah was not a man to be deterred from 
his purpose. He reminded the people of the good 
hand of his God, made his prayer, calledupon them for 
their co-operation, and set forward the work. Like a 

Wise Master-builder, 
he cleared away the rubbish from the foundation 
before building the wall thereon. He believed in 
thorough work. He was building for the future as 
well as the present. As a reformer he condemned 
the evils among his own people by which the poor 
had been oppressed. He taught them by example 
the habit of rigid economy, self-sacrifice, industry, 
courage, and generosity, lie was the embodiment 
of patriotism and religion. He prayed unto God 
for help. When danger threatened his voice rang 



12 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

out along the line, '-Be not afraid of them; remem- 
ber the Lord who is great and terrible, and fight for 
your brethren, jour sons, and your daughters, your 
wives and your houses." He builded with the 
sword in one hand and the trowel in the other, and 
never ceased until the wall was joined together and 
complete in every part. 

But there was something besides stone and mor- 
tar and the industry, skill, and courage used in 
placing them in the wall in the work that Xehemiah 
performed. He " sought the welfare of the nation," 
and the results — i. e., restoring the Jewish nation and 
preserving its identity until after Christ, "the desire 
of all nations," should come, and thus shaping, as it 
did, the history and the civilization of the world — 
surely command our attention and admiration, and 
furnish a wonderful incentive to us as rulers and as 
people to fidelity, patience, and perseverance in the 
great work of creating bulwarks for the protection 
of our homes and firesides, and the preservation of 
the institutions and customs that have done and are 
doing so much for us to-day. I am glad to know 
that 

We Have Rulers 

who possess the spirit of true patriotism, who rec- 
ognize the good hand of God in our affairs, and are 
not ashamed to call the people to a grateful remem- 
brance of their dependence upon him. 

The custom that we are observing to-day is as ap- 
propriate as it is time-honored. Love of God and 
love of country are fundamental principles that en- 
ter into and exalt individual character. Such an 
occasion as this tends to cultivate and strengthen 
these virtues. A nation is made up of individuals, 



/// Our Country's History and Destiny. 13 

and just in proportion as personal character is im- 
proved will we advance in the scale of excellence 
and true greatness. Then, in one sense, and that a 
very important one, we are 

A Christian jSTatiox. 
Not that Christianity is established by law, or ever 
will be the State religion of our country. The union 
of Church and State is forever forbidden by our 
Lord, who said, " My kingdom is not of this world." 
lie positively refused to answer a question that 
would seem to identify him with one of the great 
political parties of his day, and when asked if it 
were lawful to pay tribute to Csesar or not, replied, 
'• Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
to God the things that are God's." When the pop- 
ulace would take him by force and make him a king, 
he withdrew from them. Though his gospel is to 
be preached, and his kingdom established in all the 
world, yet it is not by might nor by earthly power. 
His conquests are to be made by the triumph of 
truth and the reign of the grand principles that he 
so fully embodied and exemplified in the hearts and 
lives of men. And so Christianity has not been 
established here by statute nor by sword, but by the 
choice of the great mass of our people. It was es- 
tablished by the preaching of the gospel enforced 
by reason, by argument, " commending the truth to 
every man's conscience in the sight of God," by 
earnest persuasion, and by the common attestation of 
the truth given everywhere by its Author. 

According to the latest and most reliable statis- 
tics, given by Dr. Fitzgerald, of Xashville, Term., 
10,000,000 of our 50,000,000 inhabitants are com- 
municants of Protestant .Churches. Allow four 



14 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

persons for each communicant, who are adherents, 
but not communicants, and we have a Protestant 
population of 40,000,000. Add to this the estimat- 
ed Roman Catholic population of 7,000,000, and we 
have a Christian population of 47,000,000, leaving 
only a small minority of 3,000,000 to 5,000,000. 
Take from this number the Jews, who, by the way, 
are firm believers in, and worshipers of, one living 
God, besides a great number who are by no means 
unfriendly to Christianity, and a still greater class 
who have no sympathy with atheism. This leaves 
a very small proportion, numerically, among us of 
those who are so noisy in their efforts to orphan the 
universe, destroy the foundation of all law and or- 
der, and rob earth's children of their most precious 
boon — trust in God and a hope of immortality and 
eternal life — with nothing but doubt, darkness, and 
despair to give in return. 

In View of These Facts, 
then, we are, at least nominally, a "people whose 
God is the Lord," and it is but fitting that on this 
occasion we, lay aside our sectional and sectarian 
prejudices, leave our secular business, and gather in 
cathedral, church, and chapel, or in country cot- 
tage or school-house, and let our songs of thanks- 
giving and praise go up from millions of grateful 
hearts, scattered o'er hill and dale, gorge and glen, 
mountain and plain and valley, from the Atlantic to 
the mighty Pacific, to the All-Father above who 
hath done such great things for us. And just in 
proportion as we recognize 

The Hand of God 
in our affairs, acknowledge the authority and submit 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 15 

to the will of the King of kings, our faith in his 
providence, and our love for the laws and institu- 
tions by which we have gained our present status as 
a nation will he increased. As we recount the mer- 
cies of the past we will thank God, take courage, 
and gather strength for the future. 

Let us consider: (1) Some of the reasons that we 
have for being thankful; (2) some of the dangers 
that threaten us; and (3) how these dangers may 
he averted, our laws and institutions perpetuated, 
and we enabled to go forward to the grand and glo- 
rious destiny before us. 

First, then, notice 

The Material Wealth 
of our country. Behold a vast area extending from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and from British 
America on the north to Mexico at the south. How 
rich its resources! how vast and varied its produc- 
tions of agricultural, pastoral and mineral wealth! 
AVe produce bread and meat enough to feed our 
millions annually, with abundance to spare. Not 
only do we produce the staples of commerce, but the 
luxuries of life are furnished in great abundance, 
and the facilities for their production and manufact- 
ure are constantly increasing. See the innumera- 
ble herds that throng our boundless prairies, and 
think of the inexhaustible mines of silver, gold, 
copper, iron, lead, coal, and other minerals that 
course our mountain ranges, besides the vast forests 
of timber that cover them. Look at the contour ot 

Our Coast Line, 
our splendid harbors where vessels may ride at an- 
chor, and load and unload tlieir rich cargoes. Then 



1G Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

consider our variety of climate, so conducive to 
health, and to a variety of productions and occupa- 
tions, and all united by great lakes and noble rivers, 
lines of railroad, telegraphs and telephones that 
penetrate every great valley or rich deposit of wealth, 
uniting and cementing all our interests, and afford- 
ing easy access on all sides to the mighty sea — the 
common highway of the nations of the earth. We 
could equip and support an army that would defy 
the armies and navies of Europe combined, and 
drive every foreign invader from our soil. Surely 
it may well be said of us, "Beautiful for situation, 
the joy of the whole earth." 

As I walked for days amid the halls and avenues 
and galleries, containing the wonderful exhibits 

At The World's Exposition 
at New Orleans in 1885, I began to comprehend 
more fully than ever before the vastness and almost 
inliniteness of the diversified resources of our com- 
mon country. There were piles, and pyramids, and 
palaces, and canopies, and castles, and cities, and 
towers, and temples, and domes, monuments, laby- 
rinths, and mountains of coal, copper, cane, cotton, 
corn, cheese, rice, honey, timber, marble, granite, 
salt, silver, gold, lead, wheat, oats, barley — every 
thing. It was 

Perfectly Bewildering, 

and about the only thing I could perfectly compre- 
hend was the utter incomprehensibleness of the 
wonderful display. There was not only the raw 
material, gathered from Maine to California, and 
from the swamps of Mississippi and Louisiana, but 
also nil the powerful enginery and intricate machin- 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 17 

ery,from the massive cotton-press with tons of press- 
ure to the square inch and the mammoth engines 
that kept the vast machinery in motion down to a 
camhric needle, necessary to manufacture it; and in 
the 

Artistic Arrangement 

of every thing there were displayed the ingenuity, 
the energy, and the taste to utilize all these ele- 
ments and make them minister to the wants of man 
in his physical, intellectual, and aasthetical nature. 

The United States in Miniature. 

It was the United States compressed into an area 
of less than thirty acres of ground. As I looked 
upon the scene I could but indulge a feeling of just 
pride, and also of gratitude to God that I was an 
American citizen. Surely America possesses with- 
in her borders all the elements of a great, mighty, 
and enduring commonwealth. 

The Plenty and Prosperity 

that we enjoy is a great reason for thankfulness. 
We complain of hard times, and there has been a 
great pressure, financially, upon portions of our 
country for a year or two. But we feed our fifty 
or sixty millions of people, and still extend the in- 
vitation to the poor and oppressed of nearly every 
other nation, except China — and we get a goodly 
share from there — to come and share the blessings 
that God has lavished upon us. 

Here are a few items gathered from a Review 
which make a showing that will surprise many 
persons as to the condition of the masses among 
us, compared with other countries: 
2 



18 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

Averaqe Wages per Week. 

In the United States ". $14 60 

In England 7 50 

In France 5 00 

In Germany 4 00 

Average Price of Food. 

Beef. — New York, 16 cents; Chicago, 12 cents; England and France, 
22 cents. 

Flour. — New York, 3 to 4 cents per pound; England 4J cents; Ger- 
many, 5 J cents; Italy, 10 cents. 

Pork. — New York, 8 to 10 cents; Chicago, 4 to 5 cents; England, 16 
cents; France, 14 cents; Germany, 17 cents; Italy, 13 cents. 

Mutton. — New York, 9 to 10 cents; Chicago, 5 to 12 cents; England, 
17 cents; France, 16 cents; Germany, 14^ cents; Italy, 15 cents. 

Taxation per Capitum: 

In the United States $ 9 

In England 13 

In France 16 

In Italy 11 

In Germany, including Austria 11 

• . Each Citizen's Share of National Debt: 

United States $ 30 

England 108 

Italy 74 

France 128 

Austria : 72 

Liability to Army Duty (in standing army). 

United States, one man in every 2,000 

France, one man in every 17 

Italy, one man in every 20 

Eussia, one man in every 10 

These figures were prepared in 1885, but perhaps 
there has been no material change in their compar- 
ative value since then. I know that 

Drought Has Prevailed, 
in some sections, and a great shortness of crops was 
predicted. This has been the case in some localities, 
but it is not general. The cotton crop, according to 



In Oar Coantnfs History and Destiny. 19 

the latest report from the Department of Agricult- 
ure at Washington, falls little short of the enormous 
yield of last year. The corn crop will equal nearly 
two billions of bushels; buckwheat, elev.eu million 
bushels; potatoes, one hundred and seventy million 
bushels; perhaps about the usual crop of wheat, and 
forty-five million tons of hay for our cattle and 
horses. Surely there is no danger of starving very 
soon. 

The decline in silver and copper, which caused 
such depression throughout the West, has been ar- 
rested, and there is a strong upward tendency in 
the market. The prices of our various productions 
are advancing, business is reviving, the silver dollar 
is gaining favor, and the issuing of our new silver 
certificates, as a much-needed medium of exchange, 
is making our people happy. 

Considering these facts, is it not hisrh time that 
we cease our grumbling, and, having food and rai- 
ment, learn therewith to be content? 

True, portions of our country have been visited by 
"Earthquake, Flood, axd Storm/'* 
and while our hearts are made sad at the great suf- 
fering and loss of life, and while we deplore the 
destruction of property caused thereby, yet, with 
a firm faith in the providence of God, these 
tilings may and will be overruled for the good of 
the surviving ones. We are thus brought face to 
face with the power of the great Unseen, with whom 
we have to deal, and made to see the uncertainty of 
human life and the folly of laying up treasures in 
this world alone. We should be thankful that these 
great convulsions in earth, air, and water were no 

•• The feariV.l storms and great floods in 1SSG. 



20 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

more wide-spread, and our hearts should be moved 
with sympathy and liberality toward the sufferers. 
Thus the bonds that unite the different sections of 
our common country will be strengthened, our 
hearts enlarged, and our usefulness and our happi- 
ness increased. " No chastening for the present 
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless 
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of right- 
eousness, to them that are exercised .thereby ." (Heb. 
xii.) A baptism of suffering makes us akin, and 
should unite us to Him who suffered for all mankind. 
A short time ago I was traveling across the val- 
ley, and in front of me was a very dark and threat- 
ening cloud, whose approach filled me with serious 
forebodings and caused me to hasten my steps to a 
place of safety from the coming storm, but all at 
once the sun shone out and I beheld a rainbow of 
such transcendent beauty that all my forebodings 
instantly ceased, and my heart was filled with joy 
and gladness. I thought, while the bright sunlight of 
heaven combines the elements of beauty, and paints 
the lovely rainbow on the bosom of the darkest 
cloud, and arches it over with a halo of glory, a 
bow of promise to the weary toiler of earth, so faith 
in the w T isdom and goodness and mercy of the All- 
Father brings order out of chaos, and light where 
all was darkness, and discovers love and life and 
beauty to the sincere, trusting soul, even amid the 
darkness, the gloom, the disappointment and suf- 
fering of a sin-disordered world. 

Peace. 

While Europe is almost constantly agitated by 
wars and rumors of wars, and each power is watch- 



In Our Countrifs History and Destiny. 21 

ing the other with a suspicious eye, we are at peace. 
I am not indifferent to the disturbance caused by 
the recent murderous acts of a 

Few Crazy Anarchists 
in Chicago. .This is the first fruits of the drag-net 
of indiscriminate and unrestricted immigration that 
is bringing the "good, bad, and indifferent" of every 
nation under the sun to our shores. They have 
had a patient hearing, a fair trial, a just sentence, 
and, it is hoped, will soon expiate their crimes at the 
end of a rope, and thus serve as an example and a 
warning to all of like mind who may come after. 
Nor have I overlooked 

The Labor Troubles 
that have aroused no little ill-feeling and caused no 
little suffering, and contributed so much to the lin- 
settlement of business matters in general. I shall 
not stop here to discuss the immediate causes that 
have operated to produce this state of things, ex- 
cept to say that if the spirit and teachings of the 
Lord Jesus Christ were accepted and followed by 
both capitalist and laborer, there would be a speedy 
and amicable adjustment of all these troubles. In 
the gospel is found a solution of the present diffi- 
culties, and a panacea for all the ills of life. Christ 
is the great magnetic force 1hat draws all hearts 
that trust him to a common center, and hence close 
to each other. In him the discordant and jarring 
elements are reconciled, enmities and alienations 
removed, partition walls broken down, and parties 
hitherto estranged are brought together and united 
in bonds of love and peace. "For he is our peace, 
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition 



22 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

that was between us." Faith in and obedience to 
him will make both capitalists' and laborers of us all. 
It will endow us with "the true riches " and teach 
us how to use them. It will make us workers to- 
gether with God for the uplifting of humanity to a 
higher plane of life and excellence. 

I fear no serious trouble. The masses are loyal 
to our laws, and there is yet good sense and states- 
manship enough among us to adjust these matters 
peaceably, and in a manner that will be satisfactory 
to all concerned. 

Our Little Army. 

Thanks to our heroic Indian fighters, Generals 
Howard, Gibbon, Crook, Miles, our fallen Custer, 
and others, and to the noble army of brave offi- 
cers and faithful men who followed them over rocky 
mountains and sandy deserts, through summer suns 
and winter snows, and many of whom now sleep 
where they fell on the field of battle, our north- 
western and south-western borders have at last been 
freed from annoyance by the hordes of lawless Sioux 
and murderous Apaches, and we trust forever. A 
little army of two thousand officers and twenty-five 
thousand men, but as brave as ever marched to the 
music of fife or drum, now keeps the peace and pro- 
tects our interests at home, while a surprisingly 
small navy protects our commerce upon the high 
seas. 

How Different 

are these from the years that are past, when the 
clouds hung dark and lowering over the national 
sky, when American was arrayed against Ameri- 
can, son against father, and father against son, in 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 23 

deadly combat. While the heartless demagogue 
goes through the laud now and then, trying to re- 
vive old issues and opeu old sores, and the return of 
election time causes a slight ripple upon the other- 
wise smooth sea, I am glad to believe that as 
Americans we are more than ever before 

A United People. 

Three years ago at Baltimore it was my great 
privilege to sit in an assembly of five hundred dele- 
gates (besides there were hundreds of visitors) rep- 
resenting all the Methodists of America, from Can- 
ada to the Isthmus — Xorth, South, East, and West — 
numbering three million seven hundred thousand 
communicants, and representing a population esti- 
mated at upward of fourteen millions. It was 

TnE Centennial Conference, 

celebratin or the close of the first centurv of organized 
Methodism in America. Black and white, Indian 
and Mexican, Yankee and ex-Confederate, all sat 
side by side, talked, preached, prayed, sung, rejoiced, 
wept, and worshiped God together, and wound up 
with the biggest and grandest love-feast that I ever 
expect to witness this side of heaven. I could but 
think how pleasant it is to dwell together in unity. 
On my journey thither and return, I passed through 
the great valley of Virginia, and was at Culpepper, 
Fairfax, and Manasses Junction, near the great bat- 
tle-fields and scenes of blood and carnage of other 
years. An occasional lone chimney and a few des- 
olate-looking walls and ruins, and old, dilapidated 
fortifications, remain to mark the scene of strife. 
Yet Nature is doing her best to 



24 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

Heal the Wounds 
and carpet over the heaps of ruins with grasses and 
flowers of sweetest fragrance and richest hue, and 
restore beauty, plenty, and prosperity to the once 
wasted fields. So, I am glad to say, Time is 
healing heart-wounds and uniting those who were 
once divided in ties of common brotherhood. 

An Affecting Scene. 
At Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, I visited 
the burying-ground of the Union soldiers, and as I 
looked upon a beautiful marble monument, erected 
by the "daughters of Maryland" over the graves 
of fallen sons, and then walked amid the hundreds 
of little marble slabs that mark the resting-place of 

The Boys in Blue, 
my eyes were suffused with tears. It was the first 
military cemetery that I had ever visited. I thought 
how many devoted husbands, loving fathers, and 
noble sons lie there, who languished in tent or hos- 
pital, or fell on the field of battle far from home, 
with no loving hand to minister to their wants, and 
no loving heart to cheer and comfort them in their 
last hours. Most of the slabs contained the name 
of the soldier who rested beneath; but here and 
there is one that has the inscription, "name un- 
known." My emotions were deeply stirred. Walk- 
ing a few hundred yards farther to the north-west, 
I stood by the graves of hundreds of 

The Boys in Gray, 
where stands in the midst a life-size statue of Stone- 
wall Jackson, erected by surviving comrades in 
memory of their fallen chieftain, whom they loved 



In Oar Country's History and Destiny. 25 

with ardent devotion. He looks as if just ready to 
give the word of command. But alas! no voice es- 
capes the marble lips, and the hearts that once were 
thrilled with life as they "stood like a stone wall " 
in defense, or bounded forward following their lead- 
er in the gallant charge, are now stilled in death. 
I would have been untrue to my nature if I had re- 
frained from weeping here too. And so it is with 
hundreds of others who go there, whether from the 
North or from the South. They were on opposite 
sides, but they were honest, and fought most bravely 
— Americans could not do otherwise — for what they 
believed to be right; and now we who have learned 
a great lesson at so dear a price mingle our tears 
and scatter flowers over the graves of the " blue and 
the gray " alike. Their deeds of valor are a common 
heritage, and belong to us all. Their blood was 
poured out. It was a costly sacrifice, but if it cements 
our hitherto divided country in indissoluble bonds of 
love and friendship, they will not have died in vain. 
And such is the tendency of things. 
A Visit to the South. 
I was deeply impressed with this thought while 
at the great hotels in the South, and as I walked 
through the galleries and avenues of the Govern- 
ment Building at the Exposition at New Orleans, 
and saw the people of our common country, from 
Maine and Mississippi, Massachusetts and Louis- 
iana, Ohio and Alabama, Vermont and Virginia, 
New York and Texas, Minnesota and Missouri, 
all shaking hands so cordially, and taking counsel 
and learning from each other, and uniting their in- 
vestments, their interests, and their sympathies for 
all time to come. Here is what a friend of mine, 



26 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

Rev. W. B. Palmoro, an ex-Confederate, says of the 
same scene: 

"From the gallery of our Government Building as 
you look down upon the varied products, coats-of- 
arms, and flags of the States, it has the appearance 
of an enchanted city. It is really the United States 
in miniature. Leaning over the railing of this gal- 
lery, gazing on this wonderful picture, as the sons 
and daughters of all these States were meeting and 
greeting each other in such good fellowship, we 
drifted back through twenty years, to Shreveport, in 
this same State. There it was we surrendered the 
arms with which we had been trying to put asunder 
what God hath so evidently joined together. Amid 
the din and uproar of this multitude I lifted up my 
heart in a silent prayer of thanskgiving for the fail- 
ure of our arms. For this to me at least is: 

The land of every land the pride, 
Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside, 
Where brighter suns dispense serener light, 
And milder moons imparadise the night." 

Ill all my extended travels through the South two 
years ago, in which I mingled freely with all classes, 
I never heard a disloyal sentiment expressed. The 
people there are doing all they can to secure peace 
and unity and prosperity to our common country. 
Governor Gordon, in his inaugural address at At- 
lanta, gave fitting expression to the universal senti- 
ment of the South regarding the renewed and per- 
petuated unity of the States of the Republic. No 
voice will be raised anywhere in the Federal Union 
to dissent from his eloquent declaration that: 

"Nowhere in this republic are there either dis- 
loyal citizens or disloyal sentiments. Bat every- 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 27 

where all hearts, voices, and arms are ready for the 
preservation of the General Government in all its 
constitutional vigor as the pledge of our peace and 
safety." 

AVhile there are differences in opinion and senti- 
ment upon many questions, which is perfectly nat- 
ural in a free country, yet the great masses are true 
to our laws, and shame he to him who would try, 
for partisan or selfish or secular purposes, to rupt- 
ure these bonds of union that are growing stronger 
as the years roll by* 

Yes, w r e are a great, a united, and a free people. 
We are at peace with all nations. 

The Stars and Stripes 
float undisturbed in nearly every part of the wide, 
wide world, and under the folds of our glorious 
banner Americans are respected and protected. 

We are the wonder of the world, and are march- 
ing on, in spite of the loud predictions to the con- 
trary by the enemies of republican government, to 
a still grander destiny. 

Our Own Mountain Land. 
And here let me say a word or two about our own 
section of country, Montana Territory. It embraces 
that vast area lying between the 45th and 49th par- 
allels of north latitude, and the 104th and 116th de- 
grees of longitude west from Greenwich, making it 
five hundred and seventy-five miles from east to 
west, and two hundred and seventy-six miles from 
north to south. It contains about one hundred and 
forty-five thousand square miles, or nearly ninety- 
three million acres, fifteen million of which are 
suitable for cultivation. It is estimated that it will 



28 Patriotism and Relic/ion as Potent Factors 

furnish at least thirty thousand farms of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres each, besides the boundless tracts 
left for meadow, pasture, timber, and for mining 

purposes. 

The Diversity 

found in mountains, foot-hills, and valleys, all blend- 
ing in such beautiful proportion, adds to the grand- 
eur and inspiration of the scenery, to the healthfull- 
ness and vigor of the inhabitants; furnishes a great 
variety of occupations, and makes it capable of sup- 
porting a vast population. The mountains furnish 
the gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, iron, and other 
minerals, besides timber in abundance; the foot- 
hills fatten the innumerable and increasing herds of 
cattle, horses, and sheep; the valleys supply bread 
in abundance for the toiling thousands; the dashing 
mountain streams of crystal water furnish ample 
power to drive all the quartz- mills, concentrators, 
saw and grist mills, woolen-factories, and every 
other kind of machinery that can be devised and 
harnessed on to them, while river and railroad af- 
ford ample communication with the outside world 
in ever} 7 direction. Thus these varied interests are 
all dependent, and made to blend and minister to 
each other. Ttns insures business activity, a ready 
market for our produce, fair compensation for la- 
bor, and the settlement and development of our 
country, at no distant day, to the fullest extent of 
its wonderful resources. 

Character of People. 
Montana was settled by a brave, determined, en- 
ergetic, active, persevering people. Such was its 
extreme isolation, and the dangers encountered by 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 29 

contact with savage foes that hemmed it in and oc- 
cupied a great portion of it, and the hardships en- 
countered by the difficulty of getting food and con- 
tending with lawless banditti, that none but the 
class described would venture hither, or remain loug 
after they came. The promptness with which 
u road agents" and other offenders were dealt with 
in early times created a wholesome sentiment in 
favor of honesty and fair dealing, and a regard for 
the sacredness of " life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness," and did much to lay the foundation of 
our present peaceful relations and prosperous con- 
dition. The very mention of 

The Word "Vigilantes" 
makes every desperado quake with fear to-day, 
while the sight of the familiar characters, " 8-7-77," 
written by a mysterious hand in chalk-marks on 
street-corner, sidewalk, alley, and saloon, causes 
many a worthless character to gather his gripsack 
and start without delay for a more congenial clime. 

All Honor 
to those noble champions of honesty, freedom, and 
public virtue. They were in their time the promoters 
of law and order and good society. May we never 
be found wanting in men and women as prompt and 
as fearless, when necessity requires, in driving from 
our fair land every moral evil that would rob our 
people, blight and curse our peaceful homes, and 
destroy our happiness! 

Our Progress. 
What grand strides have we made even since the 
days of 1871! Then our population numbered 
scarcely twelve or fifteen thousand, and was con- 



30 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

stantly decreasing. Once it seemed that the Black 
Hills excitement would depopulate our Territory. 
The outlook for miners, farmers, and all business 
men was very dark. Now we poll thirty-two 
thousand votes, and number, it is estimated, one 
hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants. Then the 

"Rich Men" 
of Montana, who were worth, say, one hundred 
thousand dollars or more, could be counted on the 
ends of your fingers — and not take all of the fingers 
either — while now their name is legion whose 
income is one hundred dollars and upward a 
day; fortunes, too, that have been acquired by 
good management and honest toil right here in our 
midst. Then it was hazardous to venture into the 
Yellowstone, Mussel-shell, or Judith Valleys, or out 
of sight of Fort Benton, or Sun River Crossing, 
without a body-guard, for fear of losing your scalp; 
and the pioneer preacher traveling his circuit, the 
mail-carrier, the physician, or trader who ventured 
near the border wisely carried his trusty rifle or re- 
volver for protection. But now you can go from 
one extreme of our Territory to the other, whether 
on horseback, stage-coach, or "jerky" — the old 
method of transportation — or on the modern palace 
cars of the Union Pacific or Northern Pacific or 
Manitoba railroads, with none to molest or make 
afraid. Then there were scarce 

• Half a Dozen School-houses 
throughout this vast domain (your humble servant 
taught one term of school in a blacksmith-shop and 
another in a vacated miner's cabin, with cracks in 
it so large and numerous that windows were super- 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 31 

fluous, and the roof so low that he had to stand 
under the ridge-pole to avoid contact with the ratt- 
ers, but for which service he was paid the handsome 
sum of seventy and seventy-five dollars per month); 
now our beautiful and commodious brick and stone 
and frame school buildings are numbered' by the 
hundred, and dot nearly every valley and every 
mountain-side. Then we bad 

Less Than a Dozen Churches, 
and many of our citizens laughingly said, " This is 
no plaee for religion." The t; circuit-rider" preached 
in billiard-halls, saloons, stores, cabins, tents, the 
homes of the settlers, to miners, teamsters, mer- 
chants,, and gamblers, whenever and wherever he 
could get the people together; and, be it said to 
their credit, he generally had a respectful, orderly, 
and attentive audience. Now, thank God, while 
we have a number of creditable and some costly 
churches in our principal cities and towns, there is 
seen in nearly every village or valley of any note 
in our Territory a neat chapel, or a stately, heaven- 
ward-pointing church-spire, where is also heard the 
'■ sound of the church-going bell," which preaches 
and re-preaches many a sermon to the busy multi- 
tudes that pass along, telling them that there is a 
God in heaven, and calling us all to a remembrance 
of the duties we owe to him. 

Gratifying: Report. 

The last census report shows a higher average of 
general intelligence — that is, a smaller per cent, of 
persons over ten years of age in Montana who are 
unable to read and write — than in any other State 
or Territory of the Union. It says that out of 



32 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

five hundred persons there are only eleven who are 
unable to read or write. This speaks well for our 
school system, especially when it is considered that 
we have received no benefit yet from the public 
lands set apart by the General Government for edu- 
cational purposes, and just at the time when we 
need it most. 

Our Bank Account. 

The last report that I saw showed a much higher 
average of the amount of deposits in the national 
banks per capita, in Montana, than in any other 
State or Territory. Our Territory is out of debt, 
with money in the treasury. Our assessment roll 
amounts to over sixty millions of dollars, and in- 
creases several millions each year — leaving out our 
mines, which are not taxable, and would aggregate 
more than one hundred millions. Our stock-rais- 
ing and wool-growing facilities have already reached 
enormous proportions, and are constantly increasing. 

In 1871 w 7 e were four hundred and fifty miles 
from the nearest railroad station; now we have 
eleven or twelve hundred miles of railroad in our 
borders, with another thousand miles soon to be 
constructed, involving an expenditure of about ten 
millions of dollars. And yet we have never issued 
a bond nor paid a dollar of subsidy to any railroad, 
and I hope we never will. 

Our losses in stock last winter will work a hard- 
ship to many of our large cattle-growers, but it will 
prove a benefit to us all in the end. 

There has been an 

Abundant Crop 
throughout the Territory the past year. There has 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 33 

never been any thing like a real failure in crops in 
Montana. We always have enough and some to 
spare, even in the hardest times. Among the old 
settlers there are as few really poor people, and the 
masses of them are in as independent and easy cir- 
cumstances, as in any land upon earth today. 

The Health 
of the Territory is fine. Our citizens are in good 
spirits, and expecting an era of business activity 
such as we have not experienced before. 

The people of each section of our Territory think 
they have the choice of the land. This is charac- 
teristic of Montanians. While we accord to all the 
right to think as they please, yet there is little doubt 
that this lovely Bitter Boot Valley is, as it has been 
aptly styled, 

The Garden- spot of Montana. 
Nature has done much far us here. The mount- 
ains are high and rugged andgraud, the "old mount- 
ain pines " lofty and majestic, the streams clear and 
beautiful, the climate mild and healthful, the great 
variety of fruit delicious to the taste, the fields pro- 
ductive, and the gardens charming to the eye. Some 
of the prettiest and coziest homes and finest farms 
in all Montana are here in our midst, and every thing 
conspires to render this a charming place to spend 
one's days. 

Xow and Then. 

How different are our circumstances and tjie times 

in which we live from the days of '63 and '64, 
when the people lived in tents, dug-outs, cabins, 
wickiups, and covered wagons; when flour sold for 
one hundred dollars per sack; and sugar, coffee, salt, 



34 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

and other groceries, if they were to be had at any 
price, brought one dollar per pound, and many had 
to live on wild meat "straight," without salt; or on 
vegetables, such as frozen turnips and potatoes, des- 
titute of such luxuries as salt or pepper; and I 
have heard men tell of subsisting upon the red 
berries plucked from rose-bushes, so great was the 
scarcity of food during that intensely cold and 
dreary winter. How much more comfortable are 
Rev. L. B. Stateler and his companion in their cozy 
home on the bank of the Jefferson River, than when 
they were living under an arbor or in a rude cabin 
herding and milking their few cows, their main de- 
pendence for a living, feasting on potatoes and the 
venison that the venerable pioneer minister had 
brought clown with his unerring rifle! How differ- 
ent the circumstances of Major Brooke and family in 
their present quarters, dispensing old-fashioned Vir- 
ginia hospitality at Whitehall, from what they were 
in the old cabin at Beaver-head with a dirt roof and 
a dirt floor, and without a chair or a table to their 
name! No doubt our successful and deservedly 
popular evangelist, Rev. W. W. Van Orsdel, enjoys 
his present mode of traveling about, visiting the peo- 
ple in whose homes he finds a cordial welcome all 
over Montana, from Miles City to Missoula, and from 
Bear Paw Mountain to Bannock and Beaver-head, far 
more than traversing mountains and valleys on foot 
and alone, without money in his pocket, and with 
mountain lions screaming about his path and ready to 
pounce upon him while sleeping out in the open 
woods without shelter, when making his journeys 
from one settlement to another, carrying the mes- 
sage of life and peace to prospectors, miners, cow- 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 35 

boys, and settlers scattered over the country. I 
imagine that our old-time friend and fellow-citizen, 

Ex- Governor Ha user, 
found the gubernatorial chair which be filled 
with such dignity and grace, with all its thorns, far 
more agreeable than the position he occupied the 
day that that Crow chief, " as brave as Julius Caesar," 
put bis linger on both their noses and then on their 
rifles, and thus signaled him out to fight a duel on 
the bank of the Yellowstone in 1863. Our friend, 
Mr. "Sternie" Blake, I dare say, is better pleased 
with his present quarters and prospects at Victor 
than when he and Ilauser and his other companions 
(about fifteen in number) were gazing into the gun- 
barrels of thirty or forty Crow warriors that were 
cocked and drawn upon them with deadly aim, only 
waiting a signal from the old chief to fire, on that 
eventful day, April 23, 1863; or when their tents 
were riddled w T ith bullets a few nights after, while 
he and his party, under Jim Stuart, were making 
that memorable trip down the Yellowstone, survey- 
ing town-sites and searching for gold. Doubtless 
Col. \V. F. Sanders, even if he did not get to Con- 
gress, feels more at ease pleading for the " best client 
of Montana Territory" (the Northern Pacific Kail- 
road Company) than when he was prosecuting 
George Ives, the road agent, before that motley and 
tumultuous company of exasperated miners and 
mountaineers at Virginia City in the winter of '63 
and '64, when the discharge of a single gun or pis- 
tol would have turned the place into a scene of blood 
and carnage. And so with hundreds of 

Brave Pioneers and Prospectors 
whose names are too numerous to mention hero. 



36 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

With pick and shovel arid pack-horse, or with rifle, 
coffee-pot, frying-pan, and a pair of blankets strapped 
upon their backs, they penetrated gorge and glen, 
forcing their way through trackless forests and over 
swollen and briclgeless streams, digging and delving 
and "panning," to unearth the wonderful treasures 
that have made our country wealthy and famous. 
Their deeds of valor, and their hardships and en- 
durance, fighting wild beasts and wild men, suffer- 
ing" fatigue and hunger, heat and cold, will 'never be 
fully known nor fully appreciated. They were the 
avant-couriers of our present civilization. We are 
enjoying the fruit of their suffering and toil. Many 
of them have passed away — some, let us hope, to the 
"delectable mountains," to " the beautiful city above," 
whose streets are paved with gold; while others 
there are in our midst who are., enjoying the fruit 
of their toil, possessing all that heart need wish of 
the goods of this world, and dwelling in the midst 
of friends in a land that has been made to rejoice 
and teem with the fruits of their courage and in- 
dustry. 

Joseph's March. 

It was only in 1877 that this valley, together with 
a goodly portion of Montana, was visited by the 
hostile I^ez Perces, under Joseph (who, by the way, 
performed the most remarkable military feat on 
record in the history of civil or barbarous warfare), 
leaving their pathway strewn with pillaged homes 
and murdered citizens, while some of our citizens, 
both men and women, were taken captive, the en- 
tire territory thrown into consternation and excite- 
ment, thousands of men, women, and children 
gathered in mud forts and hnstilv built barricades 



Ill Our Coun'rtfs History and Destiny. 37 

for self-defense. I well remember the time, nine 
years ago, when a number of men from this com- 
munity were threading the rocky defiles of the up- 
per Bitter Root River, climbing the almost impass- 
able mountains, so steep that they all but lean over, 
and necessitating a zigzag coarse to ascend them, 
along the Elk City trail, carrying needle-guns and 
belts fall of cartridges, the thermometer standing 
at eighty or ninety degrees, and subsisting on roast 
fish and service-berries, on the track of, and expect- 
ing every moment to overtake, a part} T of red-skins 
that had passed through our country, leaving death 
and blood and plunder in their track. 

But things have changed. Those exciting times 
have passed away, we trust forever. The war-whoop 
of the savage and the noisy tread of his flying steed 
as he " chased the antelope over the plain " or rushed 
forth to battle have been silenced by the rumble of 
car-wheels, the clatter of machinery, and the bustle 
and din of business. Instead of the smoke from 
Indian camp-fires, we now see dense volumes pour- 
ing forth from locomotives, quartz-mills, concentrat- 
ors, steam-engines, and curling up over thousands 
of peaceful and quiet homes. The desert has been 
made literally to rejoice and blossom as the rose. 
For these and ten thousand other blessings let us 
come with grateful hearts and glad hosannas on our 
tongines, and call upon all that is within us to praise 
and ma^nifv the name of the Lord our God. 

Returning from this somewhat lengthy digression, 
which our Montana readers will all pardon, let me 
ask in the second place, 

I. What Is the Secret 
of our greatness as a nation? First, we owe all to 



38 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

the goodness and mercy of the great God who pre- 
sides over the destinies of nations. But in his 
providence he uses instrumentalities. There are 
many things that might be mentioned under this 
head, but we can notice only a few of them now. 

It is not altogether in the natural advantages of our 
great country. For do not Africa and South Ameri- 
ca possess great natural resources? But where are 
they compared, rather contrasted, with the United 
States? We owe much to the 

Character of the People 
who settled our country two hundred and fifty years 
ago. The Anglo-Saxon blood coursed strongly in 
their veins, inspiring and prompting them to grand 
and noble deeds. 

Time of Settlement. 

The time too that they came was quite oppor- 
tune. If America had been settled when first dis- 
covered — when Europe was under papal power and 
in the bondage of papal darkness and superstition 
— then the influence of that blighting curse would 
have been felt over all this fair land, as it is in Mex- 
ico and South America to-day. But God, in his 
all-wise providence, so overruled that North Amer- 
ica was not permanently colonized until after the 
great Reformation, when the principles of liberty 
and the desire for freedom of conscience, freedom 
of speech, and free government began to burn in 
the hearts of our forefathers on the other side of 
the sea. Then, when the fullness of time had come, 
the way was opened and they were launched out to 
plant the principles of faith in God and of a repub- 
lican form of government in this virgin soil, which 



In Our Country's History and Destiny, 39 

has been so congenial to their nature and so condu- 
cive to their growth. We owe much to the 

Wisdom That Formed Our Laws 
and founded our institutions, and also to the courage 
and fidelity by which they were defended and per- 
petuated in all the trying ordeals through which 
they have passed. Think of the hardships endured 

by" 

John Carver 
and his little band [it Plymouth Rock, amid the 
rigors of a Xew England winter; and of 
John Smith and His Comrades 
on the banks of the James River, braving the dan- 
gers of that wilderness, exploring the Chesapeake, 
and laying the foundations of " The Old Dominion," 
which was to be the "Mother of Presidents," and 
which 'figures so conspicuously in the history of 
America to-day. 

The Contact with Savage Tribes 
and the subjugation of a wild country required no 
ordinary heroism, and called out the strength and 
courage of our forefathers, preparing them for still 
grander achievements, the founding of a republic 
upon principles so broad and liberal as to make it a 
blessing to mankind for ages to come. 

The presence of. and contact with such difficulties 
and dangers has tended largely to develop the in- 
genuity, energy, courage, and perseverance that 
characterize the American people to-day. 
More Direct Agencies. 

But let us look at the agencies that have con- 
tributed more directly to the character and perma- 
nence of our government. 



40 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

1. The Bible. 
Our forefathers believed the Bible. It was their 
law-book. The laws they enacted and the insti- 
tutions they founded were with the open Bible be- 
fore them, and shaped according to the teachings of 
this holy book. As was "the book of the law" 
with Nehemiah when building the walls around 
Jerusalem, so the 

Bible Is Our Safe-guard, 
It proclaims the principles on which all stable 
government must rest. Its teachings in Romans 
xiii. are: "Let every soul be subject unto the 
higher powers. For there is no power but God: 
the powers that be are ordained of God. Whoso- 
ever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the or- 
dinance of God: and they that resist shall receive 
to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a ter- 
ror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then 
not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, 
and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he 
is the minister of God to thee for good. But if 
thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he bear- 
eth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of 
God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that 
doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be sub- 
ject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' 
sake." 

As Dr. Fitzgerald has well said: "Here are the 

Three Strong Pillars 
that support the whole fabric of civil government — 
a recognition of civil Government as the ordinance 
of God; obedience, not from fear only, but for con- 
science' sake; and the support of magistrates in the 



In Oar Country's History and Destiny. 41 

execution of the laws. Our fathers fought not to 
throw off the obligation of obedience to rightful 
authority, but they shed their blood that their pos- 
terity might enjoy liberty regulated by law. The 
spirit of the Declaration of Independence is as much 
opposed to that of the dynamiters and anarchists 
that are now disturbing the peace of our country as 
light is opposed to darkness. The poles are not 
wider apart than the beer-bloated atheists who de- 
claim against the Bible and the Government of the 
United States in the drinking-houses of Chicago, 
and the men w T ho in 1776 staked their all for liberty 
and law." 

Say what you will about the inspiration and the 
doctrines of Scripture, but an open Bible in every 
family is one of the grandest bulwarks that any na- 
tion can erect for the protection of liberty and virt- 
ue. It is the first thing we place in the hands of 
the heathen to tame and civilize him, and under its 
magic influence whole tribes and nations have been 
redeemed from barbarism, and greatly and speedily 
changed and elevated in their character and their 
customs. Just notice the difference to-day between 
those nations and tribes and communities that have 
the Bible and follow its precepts and those who 
have it not. Under its wholesome teachings and 
its refilling and elevating influence, we have gone 
forward from the besrinnin^. 

2. The Church 
has been an important factor in our civilization. 
And I use the term in its broad sense, representing 
all who possess the Christ spirit or live the Christ 
life, not referring to any particular denomination. 
I oppose uniting Church and State. From such a 



42 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

calamity let us ever pray, " Good Lord, deliver us." 
But I mean the Church as the expounder and pro- 
mulgator of Bible doctrines, the supporter of Bible 
institutions, taking cognizance of individual life 
and character, and commending the truth to indi- 
vidual conscience in the sight of God. In this way 
it surely accomplishes much for the State. 

A State without Morality 
would be a misnomer, and morality of the highest 
character cannot be long maintained without relig- 
ion. This is the province of the Church. It prints 
our Bibles, educates and supports our ministers, 
builds and maintains our church-houses, sustains 
our Sunday-schools, founds many of our hospitals, 
orphan homes, asylums, and other benevolent in- 
stitutions, and establishes, endows, and operates 
many of our best schools, academies, colleges, and 
universities, where thousands of our sons and 
daughters are educated and trained for life's duties. 

3. Educational Institutions. 
A nation cannot attain to any eminence nor con- 
tinue long when the masses are ignorant or vicious. 
While our common school system is not perfect, it 
has. done much to impart the rudiments of knowl- 
edge, create a desire for higher education, and bring 
the rising generation to higher conceptions of true 
citizenship and good government, which is its true 
mission. There is danger that the State may un- 
dertake too much in the common school. I doubt 
the justice and the propriety of taxing the masses 
to teach the higher branches, when there are so 
few, comparatively, who can avail themselves of the 
opportunities therein offered, or derive any ad van- 



/;/ Our Coiodnfs Histdry and Destiny. 43 

tage therefrom. As a rule, those who desire a 
higher education, and can and will use it to ad- 
vantage, possess the ability to secure it otherwise 
than at the public expense, and generally prefer to 
do so. 

Let us beware of trusting to intellectual culture 
at the expense of virtue and purity. While " knowl- 
edge is power," yet it may be a power for evil as 
well as for good. The Good Book warns us to 
" keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are 
the issues of life." Here is the basis of true char- 
acter in individual life, and all education is imper- 
fect that ignores the proper cultivation of the heart. 

y 4. A Free Press. 

A free press is necessary to voice the sentiments 
of a free people. AVe are a reading people. The 
press is a mighty power in our land. It is a great 
educator, and by its untiring energy has done much 
to bring us up to our present position. But a cor- 
rupt press is a great public calamity, and should be 
guarded against with the utmost diligence by every 
true patriot and Christian. 

5. Integrity of Business Men. 
There must be competency, honesty, and integri- 
ty among the business men of a country to encour- 
age investment and insure the safety of capital. 
You are not apt to deposit your money in the bank 
if you know that the cashier deals in " futures.'' 
We have had a few panics, the result of recklessness 
in this line. But upon the whole there is a feeling 
of confidence in the business men of the land, and 
the prospect is good for an era of great prosperity. 
In fact it is already upon us. 



44 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

6. The Home. 
We owe much to the home and the family. The 
sacredness and purity of English and American 
homes has become a prqverb. The heart of every 
true American is stirred by and responds readily to 
the sentiment of the immortal Payne, " There is no 
place like home." It is the genius of our governr 
nient to foster and protect the home. This is as it 
should be. Here is the seat of life, the very fount- 
ain of religious, social, and national life. It has 
been well said that the home gives more to the 
State than the State gives to the home. The home 
supports the State. The home is the basis of the 
State — the State in miniature. Here its children 
are born and nurtured. Here the first rudiments 
of knowledge are gained. They are taught that 
first great principle of true citizenship — submission 
to rightful authority. Here the sentiments of vir- 
tue, honesty, patriotism, and religion are instilled 
into young minds and hearts, that give character to 
their future conduct, character to the State, and 
tone to our civilization. From here they go forth 
to fill public stations, or, if need be, to offer them- 
selves — as thousands have done — upon the altar to 
defend their country's honor. As is the home, so 
will be the State. Tolerate anarchy, impurity, 
dishonesty, falsehood, profanity, and the like in 
the home, and you will have them in the State. 
Foster purity, truthfulness, honesty, and religion 
in the home, and you foster them in the State. 
And here let me say that too much stress cannot 
be laid upon the sacredness of 

The Marriage Relation 
as God gave it to man, and as it is guarded by the 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 45 

teachings of our Saviour in the New Testament. 
It is the basis of the home, and cannot be too care- 
fully protected. 

Let every minister, every officer of the law, every 
judge of the court, every man and woman oppose 
the growing mania for divorces with all his might. 
For just as we ignore the law of God at this point, 
we license crime, demoralize and destroy the home, 
and turn its children out as helpless paupers on the 
world, and the nation sustains a loss that is abso- 
lutely irreparable. And just at this point I wish to 
oiler a word on the 

Influence of Woman 
upon American institutions and destiny. 

While rehearsing: the noble deeds and brilliant 
achievements of warriors upon gory fields, or of dip- 
lomates and statesmen in councils and legislative 
halls, for which we are grateful, woman is often left 
out of the question altogether. We forget who 
gave our statesmen their first lessons in oratory, 
commencing with 

You'd scarce expect one of my age 
To speak in public on the stage, 

recited on a stool, a chair, or a mother's knee; and 
who instilled the sentiments of patriotic courage 
into the hearts of our military chieftains, as w T ell as 
in the boys of noble birth and blood who followed 
them on to victory or death. How few there are 
who stop to think of 

Mary Ball, 

who gave to America her illustrious Washington, 
and nurtured and trained him in his Virginia home 
for such a destinv, or 



46 Patriotism and Belie/ion as Potent Factors 

Martha "Washington 
his wife, whose fidelity and patience sustained and 
cheered him in the dark days of the revolution; 
whose simplicity of manner and kindness won the 
hearts of the soldiery at Valley Forge and wedded 
them to their chieftain, and whose womanly modesty 
and amiable qualities at the White House, in the 
presence of royal agents and embassadors, lent dig- 
nity and grace and respect in a large measure to the 
infant republic. But it was not wholly among the 
rich and great that woman's influence was felt in 
our early history. Among rich and poor alike we 
see her self-sacrificing spirit of devotion to the cause 
of liberty. History tells of the women of Carthage 
who cut off their own hair to make fortifications to 
defend the city. They were not a whit behind the 

Women of the American Revolution. 
Mothers gave their sons, sending with them their 
prayers and their blessings, exhorting them never to 
disgrace them nor their country by cowardice. Oth- 
ers gave cheerfully their goods, even their homes, 
depriving themselves of every luxury and working 
with their own hands in field and garden, at the 
loom and wheel, spinning flax, weaving cloth, knit- 
ting socks, and making garments for the soldiers 
fighting their battles. With such women — such 
mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts to cheer 
and encourage them, is it any wonder" that the Brit- 
ish yoke was broken, the British lion driven from 
our shores, and that we have attained the enviable 
position that we occupy among the nations of the 
world to-day? 

Beautiful Acts. 
How our hearts were thrilled at that act of affec- 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 4.1 

honate remembrance, when, just after the lamented 
Garfield took the oath of office as President of these 
United States, ho leaned over and kissed his mother; 
and so a thrill of delight passed through every true 
American heart when President-elect Cleveland 
asked, as a special favor, that the oath of office be 
administered upon the Bible that had been given 
him by his mother. Whatever may have been our 
views as partisans of these two distinguished men, 
the representatives of the two great political par- 
ties of the land, who came into power at different 
times — yet we could but feel that our country was 
safe in such hands. How the country was moved 
to sympathy by 

Mrs. Garfield's Unflinching Devotion 
to her dvinsr husband, watching day and night for 
long and weary weeks at his bedside! And the 
women of America were strengthened in a laudable 
undertaking when noble 

Mrs. President Hayes 
had the womanly courage to banish wine from the 
table of the White House; and what a grand army 
of noble women are engaged in the same commend- 
able work of trying to drive it from every home on 
American soil to-day! 

Honor to Whom Honor 
is due. America owes much to woman's influence. 
Thank God, that influence is still being exerted, and 
the throne from whence it emanates is The Home. 
May the prayer of that familiar motto, "God bless 
our home," be repeated by every American to-day, 
and may God pity and bless, and help us to pity and 
care for those who have no home! 



48 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

II. Dangers That Attend Us. 
Having outlined some of the potent factors that 
have contributed to our present national prosperity 
and greatness, let us notice some of the dangers 
that lie in our pathway: 

1. The undue encouragement given to unrestrict- 
ed and 

Indiscriminate Immigration, 

principally by monied corporations, protected often 
by "class legislation" and "high tariffs," and by 
railroad companies with a view to securing cheap 
labor and the sale of the millions of acres of the 
public domain which unfortunately has been given 
away by the Government in the shape of subsidies. 
We have always stood with open arms to receive 
the industrious poor and oppressed of other nations. 
Some of the best citizens we have to-day are of this 
class; and had this question been left to take its nat- 
ural course, the law of supply and demand would 
have regulated it, and all would be well now. But 
these extraordinary influences, superinduced by self- 
ish motives, the desire for gain, are bringing untold 
ignorance and squalor to our shores, which not only 
cheapens labor, by creating an over-supply, but 
makes disturbance among the working-classes, and 
introduces an element like that we have been deal- 
ing with, for instance, recently at Chicago, which if 
too hastily endowed with the elective franchise will 
prove to be exceedingly dangerous to our body poli- 
tic. One-fourth of the increase in our population 
to-day comes from immigration, and too much of it, 
alas! is of a beer-drinking, Sabbath-hating, law-de- 
fying, communistic element. The tendency, too, of 
tbe mass is to congregate in cities. One-fifth of our 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 49 

inhabitants, it is said, are now herded together in 
cities and towns — all of which calls for the exercise 
of that "eternal vigilance which is the price of lib- 
erty," and for the greatest activity in educational 
and philanthropic efforts to mold these mighty in- 
coming millions into harmony and sympathy with 
our American institutions. 

2. Another danger is the opportunity, owing to 
rapid transit by means of railroads, telegraph, and 
telephone, the great multiplicity of labor-saving 
machines, facilitating increase of wealth, given to 
seltish and ambitious men to form 

Powerful Monopolies, 
which often control legislation and oppress labor. 
This arouses animosity, prompts combinations on 
the part of laboring-men, and provokes to socialism 
and communism on the other extreme. There are 
cpiestions and complications arising that will require 
wise statesmanship and great patience and forbear- 
ance to solve and settle them. Capital and labor 
are mutually dependent. One cannot succeed with- 
out the other, and neither should hamper or op- 
press, but each foster and protect the other. Let 
all follow the teaching and example of Him who, 
though he " thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God,"' submitted to the greatest humiliation, and 
became poor, that the world might be blessed with 
the riches that abide forever. He is the great Cap- 
italist of the universe, yet he dignified labor by 
working with his own hands, and teaching by His 
servant that "if a man work not, neither shall lie 
eat." He taught that " whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so unto them." 
The gospel furnishes the basis, and the only basis, 



50 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

upon which these great questions will have to he 
permanently settle!!. 

3. The Liquor-traffic. 
The manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liq- 
uors as a beverage is the great curse of our land 
to-day. It is a blot upon our civilization, and cries 
to heaven against us. If it increases as it has here- 
tofore, we will erelong become a nation of tipplers, 
drunkards, and paupers. It will weaken us physic- 
ally, intellectually, and morally, and drag our civili- 
zation down to a much lower plane. Who can com- 
pute the extent of the ravages of this fearful demon ? 
Sixty or eighty thousand of our people, it is said, 
are buried annually in drunkards' graves, and 
doubtless this numbers scarcely one-tenth of the 
real victims. Knowing the effect of alcoholic stim- 
ulants upon brain and nerve and muscle. 

Is It Not Appalling, 
when we think of pouring eighty-five million gal- 
lons of the fiery poison, besides eleven million bar- 
rels of fermented spirits, down our throats every 
year? The cost of this is six hundred and twenty 
millions of dollars — more than the expense of run- 
ning our National Government. To this must be 
added the expense of keeping up the police and the 
prisons, trying and convicting the criminals, and 
taking care of the paupers that it produces. This 
enormous loss of wealth, Avhich is worse than 
thrown away, which we sustain merely to let this 
demon ravage our homes and prey upon our peo- 
ple, is nothing to compare with the loss of life and 
health, loss of labor, destruction of homes, the 
breaking of mothers', wives', and sisters' hearts, the 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 51 

turning annually of thousands of helpless children 
outjipon the world, and the increase of crime and pau- 
perism and suffering everywhere. Is it not strange 
that men who profess to be true patriots and 
American citizens, and avowed lovers of the sacred- 
ness of home and the purity of society, will uphold, 
engage in, and receive the ill-gotten gains of a traffic 
that causes such wide-spread misery and ruin? 
The money gotten by it is to society, to morality, 
and to humanity what the 

Thirty Pieces of Silver 
were in the hands of the betrayer and murderers of 
our blessed Lord. It is the price of blood. It 
must of necessity blight all the finer feelings and 
corrupt the nature of him who receives it. And 
the wonder is that more are not driven by sheer ne- 
cessity to follow the example of Judas, who was un- 
able to endure the remorse caused by the crime 
that he had committed against God and man. I 
know that many do not view the subject in this 
light, but it seems to me that there is no escaping 
the logic of the facts in the case. That 

The Evil Is Spreading 
in places where restrictive measures have not been 
taken to prevent it, there can be no doubt. There 
are several things that contribute to this result, 
among which are the following: 1. The manufact- 
ure has assumed vast proportions, and millions of 
dollars are invested in it. Hence the saloon, with 
all the diabolical agencies that accompany it, has 
been instituted and equipped, and stationed on 
street, corners and cross roads — in all th# frequent- 
ed paths of men — to promote and secure the sale 



52 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

of these liquors. There are two hundred and eighty 
thousand dram-shops in our country where the dead- 
ly poison is dealt out to our people. 2. The congre- 
gating of laboring men in the great manufacturing 
and commercial centers increases the temptation to 
indulge this and other kindred social vices. 3. 
The adulteration of liquors, increasing the appetite 
for the fiery stuff, inflaming the passions, and has- 
tening its deadly effect on mind and body. 4. The 
pernicious habit of " treating," and of setting wines 
and otker liquors before guests, at fashionable en- 
tertainments, where custom renders it impolite to 
refuse indulgence. How many a noble young man, 
who could have resisted the temptation under ordi- 
nary circumstances, has been entrapped and led to 
ruin by these devices of the devil! 

I cannot find words to express my aversion for 
this abominable business. It is a traffic in human 
misery, human blood, and human souls. It is 

An Enemy 
to human nature; it is an enemy to society; it is an 
avowed enemy to law and order, and an enemy to 
the peace, purity, and permanent prosperity of our 
great country. The judges of our courts unite in 
testifying to the great proportion (about nine-tenths) 
of the crime that is caused by it. It is particularly 
noticeable how prominently the saloon figured in 
the trial of the anarchists at Chicago. It Avas the 
head-quarters of these enemies of law, and furnished 
the inspiration necessary to carry out their fiendish 
plots. Railroad companies and other great corpo- 
rations, warned by past experience in loss of life 
and property, are waking up to the magnitude of 
the evil, and are uniting in the war against it. It 



Iii Our Country's History and Destiny. 53 

corrupts our politics, boasts of controlling two mill- 
ion American votes, and is now raising a fund of a 
million and a half dollars to be used in our next 
general election in 1888. 

What a Monopoly. 
What a power for evil! Xo wonder that the noble 
women of America have banded together in the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with Fran- 
ces E. Willard, Mrs. Hoffman, and others at their 
head, to wage eternal warfare against this enemy of 
woman and woman's home. No wonder that the 
moral sense of the whole nation is being aroused on 
this subject as it is. It is 

The Great Question 
of the hour. It is not mere visionaries, fanatics, and 
enthusiasts that are discussing it now, but stolid stat- 
isticians, wise and rigid economists, calculating busi- 
ness men, and far-seeing statesmen. And no wonder! 
This monster invades the homes of high and low, 
rich and poor, wise and ignorant, and levies tribute 
upon all alike. Who has not felt the sting of the 
serpent? Who has not mourned a father, a son, 
brother, husband, or friend, whose life was blighted 
by the curse of liquor? and whose heart has not 
been moved to its very depths by the sad wail of a 
grief-stricken mother, uttering in the deep anguish 
of her soul, " Where is my wandering boy to-night? " 

Who Is Responsible 
for the crime and misery caused by the continuance 
of this pernicious business? The man who sells it 
by retail is undoubtedly responsible, for the Bible 
declares '-woe unto him that giveth his neighbor 
drink.'' The wholesale manufacturer or dealer is 



54 Patriotism and Belie/ion as Potent Factors 

not without blame, for he knows the purpose for 
which it is sold to the saloon and bar-room dealer. 
The man who drinks it, whether moderately or oth- 
erwise, is responsible, for he is helping to support 
it by his influence and by his money, besides culti- 
vating the taste for liquor and strengthening the 
tendency to dissipation in his children who shall 
come after him. The city, county, territorial, state, 
and national authorities who license the traffic are 
responsible. As some one has said, it would be 
a cheap and easy self- righteousness to charge upon 
the liquor-venders all the red-handed murders, the 
sickening degradation and heart-rending wretched- 
ness which are the results of their business. But 
truth will not allow the charge. They are licensed by 
the statutes that "we the people" have enacted. 
They are our agents, and have the sanction of our 
laws and of public opinion in every community 
where they carry on their traffic. It is 

High Time to Act 
in this matter. When the pleuro-pneumonia broke 
out among the cattle, our Government promptly ap- 
pointed a commission to investigate the matter, and 
appropriated a million dollars to arrest the plague 
that threatened the life and health of four-footed 
beasts. Why not do something to stay the mighty 
plague that is destroying the souls and bodies of 
thousands of its citizens and filling the land with 
untold horrors every year? 

When the anarchists killed a few policemen in 
Chicago, the nation was aroused with just indigna- 
tion, and they were promptly tried and sentenced to 
be handed, as thev deserve to be. When one of our 
citizens is imprisoned in Mexico, or our fishermen 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 55 

get into trouble on the coasts of Canada, the whole 
nation is astir, the cry of war is heard on every 
hand, and men are ready by the thousands, both to 
vote millions for coast defense and to march with 
music and musketry and booming cannon to avenge 
the insult. After the great curse of negro slavery 
had prevailed in a portion of our land for many 
long years, when an opportunity came it was blot- 
ted out. Though many questioned the justice and 
wisdom of the manner in which it was done, yet all, 
in the South, as well as in the ^Torth, are glad to-day 
that the reproach and blighting curse is removed 
forever from our country, and the South is now en- 
joying a business boom and has a brighter prospect 
for the future than ever before. But here is the 
liquor-traffic, that fosters anarchy, scoff's at law, 
burdens us with taxation, fills prison and poor-house 
with its victims, slays its thousands, and rules its 
millions with a far more rigorous and relentless rod 
than that ever wielded by a Southern slave-driver. 
Slavery, with all its evils, had some mitigating cir- 
cumstances. It resulted in the deliverance of four 
millions of people from a state of cannibalism, and 
their final elevation to the position of citizens in a 
civilized and Christian land. But there is nothing 
to offer in behalf of this liquor-traffic. It is only 
evil, and that continually. It is simply a question 
of time when the people will come to themselves 
and arise in their might and put the monster down. 
Already in several States, and before some of the 
highest tribunals of the land, he has received most 
telling blows that cause him to reel and roar with 
rage and pain. The task before us is not an easy 
one. " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but 



56 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

against principalities, against powers, against the 
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spirit- 
ual wickedness in high places." The enemy is in 
force not only at cross-roads and along our public 
thoroughfares and in all the secret haunts of vice, 
but he rallies his hosts at primary meetings, in cau- 
cus and convention, and is strongly intrenched in 
the high councils and legislative halls. He is mus- 
tering his millions, both of money and men, for the 
fray. To meet and overcome such a foe will allow 
of no mere half-way measures. We must put on 
the "whole armor of God" and catch the spirit and 
follow the example of Him who spurned all com- 
promises with the devil, and who will lead us forth 
to certain victory. 

But all right-minded men are convinced of the 
magnitude of the evil, and that something must 
be done to arrest it. The great question of the 
hour is, What shall we do? what is the best method 
to adopt? Some advocate moral suasion alone, 
some high license, some local option, and some statu- 
tory prohibition. We shall speak of these various 
methods as we pass along. 

Moral Suasion 

is good, so far as it goes, and must and will be used. 
Its efficacy cannot be denied since the work accom- 
plished by noble Father Mathew, that hero of tem- 
perance reform in Ireland. He said, " We must cry 
down the vice and make it odious in the eyes of so- 
ciety." Between the years 1838 and 1840 he influ- 
enced two millions of Irishmen to take the pledge, 
and the consumption of liquor fell off five million 
gallons, and two hundred and thirty-seven public 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 57 

houses were closed in Dublin alone. And yet this 
great man says: "The principle of prohibition 
seems to me to be the only safe and certain remedy 
for the evils of intemperance. This opinion has been 
strengthened and confirmed by the hard labor of 
more than twenty years in the temperance cause.'' 

Could he have lived to see so many thousands of 
his converts go back to their cups, and nearly all of 
his societies disbanded, as was the case, he would 
have " strengthened "still more in the above opinion. 

There are many in every community who can be 
reached by moral suasion, but as many more who 
are not reached in this way, and who will never be 
as long as the open saloon and bar-room greet them 
on every hand, with all their gilded attractions to 
allure them to destruction. 

Cardinal Manning of England, well says: "You 
might as well call upon me as the captain of a ship 
and say, ' Why don't you pump the water out when 
it is sinking, when you are scuttling the ship in 
every direction.' ' : Xo, moral suasion must be sup- 
ported by the strong arm of the law, and that 
backed by an enlightened public sentiment. The 
saloons must be closed. Those "scuttle-holes" in 
the ship of state must be stopped up before she can 
make a successful voyage. And this is the grand 
aim of 

Prohibition. 

It is not the intention to make men temperate or 
moral by legislation, but to protect society and pro- 
mote the good of humanity in general, by removing 
a fruitful source of vice and wretchedness 

Much has been said about the injustice, the im- 
practicability, and the failure of prohibition, and a 



^8 Patriotism, and Religion as Potent Factors 

great cry is raised about " sumptuary laws " aud 
'•personal liberty/' etc. But it is simply a contin- 
uation of the cry that was raised by Demetrius, the 
silversmith, and his fellow-craftsmen who were the 
makers of idols at Ephesus, when Paul " persuad- 
ed and turned away much people, saying that they 
be no gods which are made with hands." They 
sought to excite public sympathy in their behalf, 
and shouted till they were out of breath, " Great is 
Diana of the Ephesians." They became wonder- 
fully devout and patriotic for the time, but it was 
devotion to their traffic and the patriotism of the 
pocket. 

Prohibition Is Practiced 

every day in all well-regulated communities. We 
are forbidden to use certain kinds of material in the 
construction of dwellings within the fire limits of 
cities, or to sell certain kinds of food when a pesti- 
lence invades our land. Let a man offer to start a 
butcher-shop or a tannery, or build a powder-house 
near your dwelling, appear upon the street with in- 
decent attire, or even give utterance to blasphemous 
or unbecoming language in a public place, and he 
is waited upon by an officer and prohibition is put 
in force at once. Our " personal liberty" is re- 
strained by law in a thousand different ways, and 
we bow in meek and cheerful submission, because it 
is for the public good. The benefits we receive are 
greater than the personal sacrifices we are called 
upon to make. 

We have a law in Montana closing the saloons 
and prohibiting the sale of liquors on election days. 
Why is this? If saloons are a dangerous evil and 
a nuisance on election dav, whv not on other davs 



Iii Our Country's History and Destiny. 59 



also? If it is right to close them on one day, why 
would it not be right to close them on any other 
day ? And if they can be closed by law for one day, 
then why in the name of common sense can they 
not be closed for two or three or live; or, if yon 
please, for three hundred and sixty-five days in each 
year? The objection that the law is not enforced 
may be urged also against the law forbidding mur- 
der, theft, and every other crime. It may be urged 
against the entire moral code given by the Almighty 
on Sinai. A man once said to me at the close of a 
temperance meeting, "Men have been drinking 
liquor ever since the world was created, and you 
needn't try to stop them now." I replied, "Yes, 
and so they have been killing each other too, but 
there have always been some who tried to prevent 
these crimes, and I want to array ni} T self on that 
side of the question." Every lover of good society 
wants to stand up for the right regardless of who 
may be against it. Truth is mighty and will prevail. 
This talk about '•regulating'' the whisky-traffic 
and the saloon is much like turning a band of hy- 
enas loose upon your streets, or putting a lot of rat- 
tlesnakes into your home among your children, and 
then thinking of regulating them. I have lived where 
rattlesnakes were plentiful, and I have known them 
to " regulate " more than one individual by using his 
poisonous fangs; but I never knew one to be regu- 
lated until his head was completely mashed or sev- 
ered from his body, and the boys of the neighbor- 
hood had a tradition that lie was not completely 
dead until the sun went down. I have seen many 
men and almost whole communities " regulated " by 
a saloon, but I never knew a saloon to be regulated. 



60 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

The present alarming proportions of the whisky- 
traffic, that have been developed largely under a sys- 
tem of " regulation," are sufficient to prove the folly 
of the effort. 

High License 

is a milder form of prohibition. The high license 
is really a tine imposed for a high crime against 
society. The difference is that it legalizes the nefa- 
rious business, and tends to make it respectable — 
and it is popular with the whisky ring because it 
enables rich men or companies to monopolize the 
business and get the lion's share of the ill-gotten 
gains. This system makes 

Society a Partner 
in the accursed traffic, does away with the odium 
that justly attaches to it, and commends it to the 
patronage of respectable young men and of honor- 
able old men alike. No! no! we cannot afford to 
license crime. It is just like receiving five hundred 
or a thousand dollars from a man for the privilege 
of ruining your son, your brother, father, husband, 
or friend, destroy the peace of your neighborhood 
and your home, blast your brightest hopes, and 
cloud your life forever. When you accuse him of 
the fearful crime he has committed, he simply 
shakes in your face the receipt for his money, the 
price for which you have sold your happiness and 
your all. Let the monster vice be outlawed, and 
made to hide its deformed head. It is the enemy 
of all virtue, and should be covered with everlast- 
ing shame and contempt. 

Prohibition Is Not a Failure. 
If so, then why is the whisky power so exercised, 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 61 

and combining all the powers of darkness to over- 
throw it where it does prevail, and to prevent it 
where it does not? Why are they spending their 
hundreds of thousands in Michigan, in Texas, and 
Tennessee? Actions speak louder than words. 
With all the cries of failure in Kansas, Iowa, and 
Georgia, where prohibition has been tried, still 
their efforts do not relax in trying to defeat it. Be- 
sides, the statistics that have been gathered from 
the most reliable sources, and the testimonies of 
governors in their messages, of judges upon their 
benches, and the reports of other officers high in au- 
thority, all go to show that public drunkenness and 
crime and pauperism have greatly decreased where 
prohibitory laws have been enacted. Governor 
Martin, of Kansas, an anti-prohibitionist himself, 
says that this law is enforced and observed as much 
as any other law. The leading papers and men of 
Georgia and of Iowa assure us that prohibition has 
been a great benefit in those places. Let the hun- 
dreds of saloon-keepers who are looking through 
the bars behind which they have been placed for 
violation of law say whether or not prohibition 
does prohibit! 

For my part, I am strongly in favor of 

Local Option 

as the best method of reaching the desired end. If 
the majority of people in a certain community — for 
instance, a village, a township, a city, or county — 
do not wish to have intoxicating drinks sold, nor be 
annoyed with saloons, they ought to have the priv- 
ilege of deciding it by vote. This is republican, 
this is democratic, this is reasonable and right. 



62 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

When the people of one community see how well it 
works among their neighbors, thev will be inclined 
to agitate, and finally to adopt it. Thus it will 
spread, like leaven in the lump, from one section to 
another. In this way public sentiment will be ed- 
ucated upon the subject until it becomes general, 
and the people prepared in every community to en- 
force the law when it is adopted. Already we have 
a local option law in Montana, by which, upon the 
petition of one-third of the voters of any county, the 
commissioners of said county are required to order 
an election and submit the question to the voters as 
to whether or not liquor shall be sold as a beverage 
in the county, the matter to be decided by a major- 
ity. The law is not perfect, but it is a step in the 
right direction. 

But all laws are inoperative unless they are sus- 
tained by, and are really the outgrowth of, public 
sentiment. And here is 

Our Great Work 

as ministers, as teachers, as parents, as patriots, 
as business men, as citizens of our common conn- 
try — to educate the public mind on this great ques- 
tion. First and foremost, let every man, woman, 
and child practice total abstinence from all that can 
intoxicate. If men cease to drink the fiery liquid, 
others will cease to manufacture and sell it. Cir- 
culate wholesome literature upon the subject. Or- 
ganize into lodges and societies that best suit the 
condition of the people. Insist upon total absti- 
nence in all the Churches. Cry mightily unto God 
for help, whose grace alone is sufficient to save men 
from the appetite of the fiery poison. Be firm, but 



In Our Country's History and Destiny, 63 

mild, with our opponents. Let them know that we 
tight measures, not men; that our mission is to 
" rescue the perishing" — saloon-keepers as well as 
any one else, if they will only " quit their mean- 
ness." Press the battle to the gates, until this en- 
emy of " God and Home and Native Land. " is 
driven forever from our shores. 

4. Gambling. 

This is closely allied to the whisky demon, and 
often associated with it, though not always. It is 
wrong in principle, and vicious and demoralizing 
in all its tendencies. The gambler either takes the 
property of another without giving value received, 
or exposes his own property to be taken without 
any probability of getting its value in return. In 
either case lie does violence to his own nature and 
commits a crime against society and against the God 
of heaven, who holds him responsible for the right 
use of every nickel that comes honestly into his 
possession. It is not to be compared with mining 
nor any legitimate business. It is illegitimate, and 
evil altogether. It feeds the flame of inordinate 
lust for gain ; it fosters indolence, deceit, dishonesty, 
fraud; pampers and encourages every evil appetite, 
and utterly unfits the man who follows it closely 
for any high and noble calling. 

It is utterly appalling to behold the extent to 
which this vice is practiced, and the sanction that 
it receives. "Licensed Gambling House" is the 
advertisement that meets the eye over nearly every 
door alomr the main thoroughfares of all our cities 
and towns in Montana. " Licensed " by the Leg- 
islature and by public sentiment in a Christian 



64 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

land — and the fact emblazoned on the house-tops, 
often in letters of gold, that individuals are licensed 
to carry on a business that robs men of all their 
wealth of soul and body, and turns them over to 
the demon of despair to be tormented forever and 
ever. Could you but take a peep behind the screens 
to-night, you would be astonished to see how many 
young men, business men, those who are looked 
upon as model husbands, sons, and brothers, repre- 
sentatives of almost every profession, are spending 
the evening in these gambling hells. Here is the 
secret of many a fall, many a failure in business, 
the foreclosure of many a mortgage, and the turn- 
ing out of many a helpless familj^ upon the world. 

But how can we wonder at it when children are 
schooled in the art around the center-table from the 
time they are old enough to throw a card, when 
our agricultural fairs are turned into horse-races, 
of which gambling is the principal feature; when 
our banking houses, business exchanges, and even 
church-festivals, gotten up in the name of charity 
and religion, are prostituted from their- legitimate 
use and made to pander and give encouragement to 
this vice? It infects the. very atmosphere of many 
of our larger cities; and even the women, wives and 
mothers of our children, alas! are found dealing in 
futures and betting at horse-races! It has caused 
panics that have closed banks and business houses 
from one end of the continent to the other, and 
robbed countless thousands of helpless men and 
women of all their earthly substance. 

Let every young man shun this vice, as well as 
the habit of drink. Let the pulpit and the press 
and all the honest yeomanry of our great land cry 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 65 

out against it, and frown upon it, until it will not 
dare to ask for license, but be driven by force of 
public sentiment back to the doomed region from 
whence it had its origin. 

~5. Vicious Literature. 

This is another mighty enemy of purity and virt- 
ue in the heart and home, and hence in the nation. 
"Who can tell the mischief caused by an impure 
book or paper, or an obscene picture? The old phi- 
losophers of Athens, that city of idols, it is said, 
urged the priests not to exhibit the gods in obscene 
attitudes, lest they might corrupt the youth of the 
city. I will not advertise certain books aud papers 
that are being industriously circulated in our schools, 
colleges, and homes by naming them here. Every 
artful device that cau be invented is used to spread 
them abroad, and thousands of them to-day are un- 
der lock aud key in the homes of unsuspecting par- 
ents aud guardians. Let every teacher and parent 
stand guard at the threshold of school and home to 
see that innocent childhood and youth are protected 
from these emissaries of the devil, by which so many 
lives are blighted and ruined forever. 

And while there are noble exceptions, yet many 
of our great daily and weekly exchanges enter too 
largely into the details of vice and crime. I know 
there is honest difference of opinion at this point. 
But we do not want innocence and childhood intro- 
duced into the saloon and made familiar with the lan- 
guage and evil deeds of all the dens of iniquity in the 
land. But how often the morning paper transfers 
the scenes and carries the atmosphere of the slums 
to the breakfast-table, the nursery, and the drawing- 
room! It is not best to become too familiar with 



66 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

deeds of violence and crime. To abate a nuisanra 
it is not necessary to be forever uncovering it, and 
filling street and parlor with its offensive odors. 
The olfactories become less acute and sensitive when 
constantly exposed to such exhalations. It will re- 
quire generations to rid our nation of the curse of 
the wide-spread publication of the Brooklyn scan- 
dal years ago. It was like lifting the flood-gates 
and turning the sewers of a great city into all the 
homes of the land. Thousands of youthful minds 
received a taint which will follow them to their 
graves. But not content with the record of vice in 
our own country, " the carrion is scented from afar," 
and behold we are made familiar with the disgrace- 
ful details of a scandal in high life on the other side 
of the ocean. 

To show that the pulpit is not alone in opposing 
this evil, here is a picture drawn by Mr. Joseph 
Howard, himself a journalist, at. one time city editor 
of the New York Times, and a widely known cor- 
respondent. He knows whereof he speaks, and 
writes as follows : 

" No city in the world surpasses K"ew York in 
intelligence, in love of all that is good and pure and 
noble and decent and humane; but, with the excep- 
tion of a few idiotic reports of sermons, with now 
and then a record of some English lecturer or Irish 
orator, all the upper realm is left untouched. Our 
reporters are instructed to scent the carrion. They 
never bring the rose with its perfume or the lily 
with its grace, the pansy with its drooping beauty, 
before the public attention; but the dead dogs of 
agitation and the swollen carcasses of crime and the 
offal of dirt and squalor, these are thrust before the 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 67 

disgusted eyes and under the offended nostrils of an 
amazed and outraged people." 

And the Illustrated Christian Weekly, copying the 
ahove, adds its testimony and says: 

' ; Unfortunately this is only too true. It is cer- 
tainly true of the morning papers of this city, and, 
unless we are greatly mistaken, these papers will 
compare favorably with their contemporaries in 
other cities. Thus the paper — we will not name it 
— which, on the whole, many regard as best suited 
to family reading still gives more of its space by far 
to the narration of evils than to the furtherance of 
good. It will give several columns a day to sport- 
ing intelligence, and, say, an eighth of a column to 
an account of a day's session of the meeting of the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, except that when there is a debate on a 
controverted doctrine, a third of a column may be 
devoted to the subject.'' 

I recently read an utterance from Mr. Henry 
\Vatterson. principal editor of the Louisville Cou- 
rier-Journal, in which he urges the importance of 
disinterestedness and cleanliness in the press of the 
land. The press is a mighty educator — a wonder- 
ful power either for good or evil in our land. All 
honor to it for the noble work it has accomplished. 
Instead of yielding to the temptations of wealth, or 
catering to a corrupt public taste, I trust that it will 
ari>e in its might and take a bold stand for honesty 
and purity, and the public will see that it is sustained. 

G. Prevalence of Divorce. 

The tendency to leniency in divorce laws and the 
alarming increase in the number of divorces is a 



68 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

dangerous omen. In some states there is one divorce 
to every ten marriages. In portions of California 
the reports show one to about every seven marriages, 
and in one of our large cities (Denver, Colorado) one 
to less than every four marriages. The looseness 
of our laws encourages carelessness in assuming 
these solemn vows, and facilitates the severance of 
these most sacred ties on the slightest pretense. 
Four-fifths of the applications for divorce are grant- 
ed by the courts of our land. This indicates an 
alarming state of affairs. All honor to the Catholic 
Church for the firm stand it has taken here. Mar- 
riage is not a sacrament, but it is an ordinance of 
God, and is more sacred than many are wont to re- 
gard it. The great Centennial Methodist Confer- 
ence at Baltimore, held in 1884, passed resolutions 
strongly condemning the laxity of public sentiment 
in reference to divorce, and every Church in the 
land has given utterance in one way or another to 
the same sentiment. The purity of society, of the 
family, and of the home rests upon the sacredness 
with which the marriage relation is observed. The 
State cannot afford to sympathize with wrong-doers 
at the hazard of undermining its own foundations. 
The rigidness of divorce laws and the hardships 
that they may entail upon a few individuals are 
nothing in comparison to the welfare of society and 
the purity and protection of the home. And in 
nine cases out of ten these hardships are the result 
of personal wickedness or of inexcusable careless- 
ness in the parties themselves. 

Some one has said that the secret of the decline 
and fall of the Roman Empire was not in the dev- 
astation of Goth and Vandal, but in the decline of 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 69 

virtue and purity in the homes of the Roman peo- 
ple. Let us profit by the lesson that others have 
learned at so dear a price. 

7, Sabbath Desecration. 

The Sabbath is not a mere Jewish institution. Its 
origin is traced to the Garden of Eden, when God 
" rested on the seventh day from all his work which 
he had made," and blessed it and sanctified it, thus 
showing that a seventh of our time should be set 
apart from ordinary labor for all time to come. The 
great Teacher affirms that "the Sabbath was made 
for man," and observation and experience prove 
the great wisdom of its institution. Man needs it 
in the development of his physical, intellectual, and 
moral nature. lie needs it for the welfare of his 
servants, his cattle, and all that he has within his 
gates. Even machinery must have rest. The en- 
gineer switches his locomotive into the stall, that it 
may cool off, be cleaned _and oiled and gather 
strength for another " run." It operates all the bet- 
ter, draws a heavier load, and lasts all the longer 
because of the rest. Much more does the infinitely 
complicated machinery of man's threefold nature, 
that is freighted with such fearful responsibilities 
and often runs under such high pressure, need rest 
and relaxation. Without these, friction is unavoid- 
able. The axles take fire, or the engine flies the 
track and is ditched; or the boiler explodes and ev- 
ery thing is wrecked, and wrecked forever. We 
are running under too high pressure. Wealthy 
men and corporations refuse to honor God's law, 
which is as old a? the everlasting hills, and are bound 
to pay the penalty in the end. I do not say that a 



70 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

man will accomplish as much in six days as in seven, 
but he will do as much work in a year by keeping 
the Sabbath holy as he will by laboring seven days 
in the week. Constant labor makes him dull 
and sensual, and dwarfs the liner sentiments of 
his spiritual and moral nature. It shuts out the 
thought of God and duty and heaven and immor- 
tality, and robs him of much of the buoyancy, the 
inspiration, the peace, joy, life, and sunshine that 
comes to toiling humanity through the medium of 
the Christian Sabbath. 

The real spirit and design of the divine law of 
the Sabbath relates to the seventh of our time — the 
seventh day after six days of labor. It is impossi- 
ble in the very nature of things to secure its observ- 
ance by all at the same time. But for the sake of 
order and harmony a particular day must be desig- 
nated. Hence under the Jewish economy it was 
quite fitting that the seventh day of the week should 
be set apart for this purpose. The disciples, who 
acted under inspiration and the direct command of 
Him who is the "Lord of the Sabbath," saw proper 
to change it from the seventh to the first day of the 
week, which day has been observed by the great 
body of Christian people as the Sabbath, or Lord's- 
day, ever since the resurrection of Christ and the 
gift of the Holy Spirit, both of which events oc- 
curred on this day, down to the present time. 
Hence the recognition and proper observance of 
this day are of binding force upon every citizen 
of a Christian nation, and particularly so upon every 
member of a Christian community. 

The advocates of anarchy and the defenders of vice 
make war upon our Sabbath because they know 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 71 

that with it will go many of the wholesome re- 
straints that now hold them in cheek. To do away 
with the Sabbath is, in a large measure, to do away 
with religion, with churches, Bihles, Sunday-schools, 
religious literature, and all those elevating influences 
that have helped so largely to make us what we are 
to-day. Think of this, yq careless ones! and re- 
member that just in proportion as you desecrate 
God's holy day you are contributing, so far as your 
influence goes, to bring about this state of things. 
The Mosaic law of Sabbath observance was very 
rigid, and many think too much so. It was 

For Our Good 
as well as theirs. If it had been otherwise we would 
have had no Sabbath and no civilization such as that 
which we enjoy to-day. Let us be true to the trust 
that has been handed down to us by our forefathers, 
and transmit the Christian Sabbath uncorrupted to 
the generations following. I am glad to see that 
some of the leading railroad companies of the East 
and South are endeavoring to inaugurate a reform 
in this direction. They want their employes to 
have the benefit of the Sabbath. Let it become 
universal. I know the difficulties that we encount- 
er here in the West, where the practice of the miners 
and prospectors in making Sunday the day for trade 
and recreation has its influence upon our popula- 
tion, yet we have made rapid progress already. 
But we can do far better than we are doing. Our 
merchants can do much to help in the good work. 
By closing their stores on Sunday, and acting in uni- 
formity, they would do the same amount of business 
on other days, and also get the rest that they and 
their clerks require. Let us have 



72 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

A Sunday Law 
in Montana. We do not hope to legislate men into 
religion, nor religion into men. We cannot compel 
men to observe the Sabbath religiously, nor shall 
we try to do so. But for the good of the home, for 
the good of society, for the good of the State, for 
the good of the workingman, and for the good of 
humanity on general principles, we can recognize 
the Sabbath as a day of rest, and give opportunity 
and protection to those who wish to observe it re- 
ligiously. Protect the Sabbath, and it will protect 
and keep the peace and quiet of our homes and 
promote the prosperity of our common country. 
There is one other common vice to which I will call 
attention, and that is 

8. Profanity. 
We are a nation of profane swearers. The ear is 
greeted with blasphemy on the street, sidewalk, at 
the depot, at public-houses, and even in the parlors 
and homes of many Americans. This ought not to 
be so. It is not only a violation of the third com- 
mandment, but (1) It is an insult offered directly to 
God who has given us our life, and to whom we owe 
allegiance by every tie that binds the heart to affec- 
tion and duty. (2) It is offering insult and injury 
to every believer in, and worshiper of, Almighty 
God. You would feel like knocking me down if I 
were to bandy and profane the name, and make 
light of your most intimate friend and benefactor 
in your presence, and you would feel greatly wronged 
and pained if you were unable to resent the injury 
Yet you are committing the same unpardonable of- 
fense against hundreds of your neighbors and friends 
every time you speak lightly the name of that. 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 73 

"Friend who sticketh closer than a brother." (3) It 
is contrary to the rules of polite and refined society. 
(4) It is coarse and vulgar, and lessens respect for 
the Being, and regard for the law of Him who has 
said, "Swear not at all." These are 

Not All the Evils, 

by far, that exist in our country. Nothing has been 
said of the general tendency to extravagance, high 
living, and "needless self-indulgence " that produce 
indolence and effeminacy, which things, in the his- 
tory of nearly every nation, have generally followed 
an era of such prosperity as that we have enjoyed in 
portions of America. Neither have we referred to 
the looseness in regard to moral obligation, and cor- 
ruption in the administration of public affairs, that 
have given us so much trouble; nor to the danger 
of the pulpit and the Church becoming worldly, 
lowering the standard, and failing to bear witness 
against all forms of vice. 

I have not called attention to the evils named in 
a censorious spirit, just because I take pleasure in 
looking on the dark side of the picture, or because I 
think all goodness, honesty, and purity have per- 
ished, and we are on the verge of ruin. Not at all! 
I am no pessimist. The days are not so much worse, 
if any, than the former ones. With all the sin and 
wickedness, there is intelligence and virtue encuo-h 
to 

Overcome These Evils 
and save the land. As a watchman upon the walls, 
I have called attention to them that we might be on 
our guard, and that the enemy take us not unawares 
and make us an easy prey. 



74 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

I have been interested in this fair mountain land 
nearly all my life. I studied its geography when a 
mere boy, on a big map that hung on the wall in 
our home, tracing the footsteps of Lewis and Clarke 
and other explorers from one end of it to the other. 
I have watched its development from the first, and 
for sixteen years have been personally identified 
with its interests, doing what I could for its im- 
provement. I love its mountains and valleys, its 
noble, dashing rivers and streams, its rugged can- 
yons, lovely landscapes, and fruitful fields, and I 
feel a deep interest in every thing that pertains to 
the material and moral welfare of its people. This 
is my home, these are my fellow-citziens, my neigh- 
bors, my friends, with whom I have been associated 
in times of perplexity as well as times of prosperity, 
and hence I talk freely with them on these questions 
that so vitally affect our present and future welfare. 

Let us notice in conclusion, thirdly, 

How These Dangers May Be Averted. 
I answer, by adhering strictly to those principles 
and habits of life that have contributed to our 
growth and prosperity in the past. By practicing 
that "godliness that is profitable unto all things," 
and by seeking that "righteousness which exalteth 
a nation," and avoiding that "sin which is a reproach 
to any people." 

"The joy of the Lord is your strength" as individ- 
uals, as families, as communities, as a great number 
of communities united by common interests in one 
mighty nation. By this is meant the joy that comes 
from doing the will of Him whose "loving-kind- 
ness is better than life," who is " Lord of all," whose 
"kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of whose 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 75 

dominion there shall be no end."' " Thus saith the 
Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, 
neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let 
not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him 
that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth 
and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise 
loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the 
earth, forin thesethings I delight, saith the Lord." (Jer. 
ix. 23, 24.) 

Let ns not be as the man who " beholding his 
natural face in a glass, goeth his way and straight- 
way forgetteth what manner of man he was." But 
Hook into the perfect law of liberty, and be not 
forgetful hearers but doers of the work, and we shall 
be blessed in our deeds." 

Remember the words of the immortal Washing- 
ton in his "farewell address," which will live for- 
ever: " Of all the dispositions and habits which lead 
to political prosperity, religion and morality are in- 
dispensable supports. For vain would that man 
claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to 
subvert these great pillars of human happiness, 
these firmest props of the duties of men and citi- 
zens. The mere politician, equally with the pious 
man, ought to respect and cherish them. Whatever 
may be conceded to the influence of refined educa- 
tion on minds of peculiar structure, reason and ex- 
perience both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of religious prin- 
ciple." 

The Great Incentive. 
And surely there is the greatest poscible incentive 
to urge us to the maintenance of those grand prin- 
ciples and institutions that have done so much for 
us in the past. 



76 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

Here the Nations 
of the earth are pouring in their millions. For the 
first nine months of the year 1886, there were 294,- 
720 immigrants landed on our shores — 25,000 more 
than for the same period the previous year. They 
are coming from every point of the compass, from 
the East and West," from the frozen regions of the 
North to the sand-washed shores of the South." 
All the civilizations of the world, all races, all class- 
es and conditions, high and low, rich and poor, are 
meeting here, especially here in our great West. 
And there will be such a contact and conflict of op- 
posing ideas and customs as was never before experi- 
enced in the history of the world. Already the din of 

The Great Struggle 
is heard on a thousand battle-fields. The conflict 
is raging. The strongest is bound to succeed. We 
must convert these millions or be converted by them. 
Our institutions will be put under a mighty strain. 
To falter is to be overwhelmed. To be firm and 
true is to conquer and go forward to the 

Grandest Destiny 
ever realized by a nation on earth. 

From the strategic position that we occupy in the 
midst of the nations — Europe and Africa on the one 
side and the Orient on the other — and the times in 
which we live, times in which all the forces of nat- 
ure may be realized to impress our ideas and our 
life upon the world, we are in position to influence 
the civilizations of the earth as they were never in- 
fluenced by one nation in all the annals of the past. 
This is an age of unprecedented activity, and with 
railroads and steam-ships, telegraph, cable, and tel- 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 77 

ephone, space is annihilated, and the world is 
brought together. Hitherto we have sent hundreds 
of missionaries and given hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to carry the truth to the inhabitants of Af- 
rica, Asia, and the islands of the sea, and now we have 
thousands, yea millions, of these very people in out 
midst and pressing to our shores, who, in course of 
time, will carry our language, our religion, and our 
social and civil customs back to their own land. 
It does seem that God has placed us here as 

A Beacon Light 
in the midst of the nations and of the ages. Let 
us lift high our royal banner of truth and righteous- 
ness and love. Let us kindle our watch-fires on the 
tops of these mountains and along our ocean shores, 
and keep them brightly burning in church and 
school and home, that the light thereof may shine 
with ever-increasing effulgence and power to the 
uttermost parts of the earth. 

Deploring our past sins and follies, which have 
most justly provoked high heaven, with a devout 
remembrance of His great mercies which have ever 
been toward us, and with a prospect of such grand 
and glorious possibilities in the future, let us catch 
the spirit of the sweet singer of Israel and join him 
in exclaiming, "Let the people praise thee God, 
let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be 
glad and sing for joy; for thou shalt judge the peo- 
ple righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. 
Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people 
praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase, 
and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God 
shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear 



78 Patriotism and Religion as Potent Factors 

him." (Ps. lxvii. 3-8.) As with thankful hearts 
you go to your homes— I trust to 

True American Homes, 
from which I pray you may never be " evicted" by 
"coercive" laws in the bands of relentless landlords, 
to "eat the fat and drink the sweet," of which there 
is such abundance in this land of promise and of 
plenty — do not forget the stranger who may sojourn 
within thy border, nor thy less fortunate neighbor, 
and send portions to those for whom nothing is pre- 
pared, that our rejoicing may be universal and our 
joy be full. And may it please our Father above, 
before whom we bow in reverence and humility this 
day, to keep us all safely through another year. 
Then, as one by one, in his wise and merciful prov- 
idence, we shall be called from these earthly homes 
and temples in this land that we love so well, may 
it be our happy lot to meet in "the home beyond 
the tide," "in the land that is far away," where rich 
and poor shall meet together, and as "fellow-citi- 
zens with the saints and of the household of God" 
we shall celebrate the grandest thanksgiving of all 
in that temple not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens. 



In Our Country's History and Destiny. 79 

HYMN: AMERICA. 

My country! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing: 
Land where my fathers died! 
Land of the pilgrim's pride! 
From every mountain-side 

Let freedom ring. 

My native country, thee, 
Land of the noble, free, 

Thy name I love; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills, 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song: 
Let mortal tongues awake; 
Let all that breathe partake; 
Let rocks their silence break, 

The sound prolong. 

Our fathers' God, to thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To thee we sing: 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by thy might, 

Great God, our King, 



u 



